My Views on Judging and Critiquing by Jaclyn Di Bona

You will be surprised at what you can learn by critiquing and judging someone’s manuscript. Sometimes, you can spot your own mistakes by judging others. You’ll learn that when you enter a contest, you are going to love, or be hurt by what someone says about your baby. Read it over carefully and if you receive two similar critiques then you need to go over your manuscript.

We need to be constructive, not destructive in your critiques. Not everyone does. In one of my first contests, my heart stopped when a judge said she hated my heroine. She found her to be a ‘bitch.’ Her words. How’s that for a stopper? I figured that was because my heroine came across as a woman proud of who she was and what she’d accomplished.

Another said: ‘who wants to read about two forty-year-olds?’ I felt like yelling, “Hey, we over forty are not dead to romance.” I should say not. Especially when we write romance and I read eight to ten romance books a month.

That reminds me. August is around the corner and I need to remind B&N to hold Terry Spear’s new book for me. Seduced By The Wolf. It’ll join her other four.

You need to learn the difference between show and tell. This took me a while and I’m still learning.
Telling: She looked confused as she read the letter.
Showing: Her brows wrinkled as she read the letter.
Author Shirley Jump is great at showing and telling. Check her out.

An editor suggested I go over my manuscript and delete 50% of my passive words. Had, has, have, was, were and the ly adverbs words. Great. I found my story moved faster.
I had one heck of a time with POV until I put my heroine in pink and my hero in blue. Worked like a charm. Especially when the editor said no more than 3 POV in one chapter.

WHEN YOU’RE DONE WITH YOUR BOOK. HERE’S 20 POINTS YOU CAN USE TO DOUBLE CHECK. I FORGOT WHERE I OBTAINED THIS, BUT IT IS GREAT.

1. WILL MY FIRST SCENE GRAB THE READER
2 HAVE I WRITTEN A UNIQUE STORY
3. ARE MY CHARACTERS CONSISTENT IN THEIR ACTIONS
4. ARE THE CHARACTERS 3 DIMENSIONAL? DID THEY GROW WITH THE STORY
5. CAN THE READER IDENTIFY WITH THE HEROINE?
6. HAVE I LET SECONDARY CHARACTERS OVERSHADOW OR DISTRACT FROM THE HERO/HEROINE
7. IS THE CONFLICT TOO EASILY SOLVED? IS THEIR CONFLICT A DRIVING FORCE THROUGHOUT THE BOOK
8. DOES EACH CHARACTER HAVE A DISTINCT VOICE? WHEN THEY SPEAK, DOES THE DIALOGUE MOVE THE STORY.
9. DOES THE PACING OF MY STORY BUILD CONSISTENTLY TOWARD THE CLIMAX AND RESOLUTION? DID I AVOID A SAGGING MIDDLE?
10. DO MY ENDING SCENES TIE UP ALL LOSE ENDS PROPERLY?
11. HAVE I DELETED ALL EXTRANEOUS WORDS LIKE—WERE/WAS, ALMOST, NEARLY, VERY, COULD? ARE ALL UNNECESSARY ADVERBS AND ADJECTIVES GONE?
12. IS EVERY SCENE NECESSARY, OR DID I PAD FOR LENGTH?
13. DID I LET MY RESEARCH SHOW BY TELLING MY READER MORE THAN WAS NECESSARY
NECESSARY FOR MY STORY?
14. IS THERE A GOOD BLEND OF DIALOGUE AND NARRATIVE?
15. ARE MY SENTENCES OR PARAGRAPHS TOO LONG?
16. DID I USE ALL 5 SENSES?
17. DID I PING-PONG POV
18. FOR EVERY ACTION WAS THERE A REACTION?
19. ARE MY LOVE SCENES SENSUAL OR DOES IT READ LIKE A MANUAL?
20. IS THE MANUSCRIPT NEAT AND GRAMMATICALLY CORRECT?
Jaclyn Di Bona