These are intended as a guideline and starting point to be used when critiquing someone’s novel.
General suggestions:
Not every question will be relevant to every story, and some stories will have specific questions that apply. Wherever possible, be specific in examples and give page references if you can so that the writer can see exactly what you mean. Be constructive but honest. Don’t just say that you don’t like something- explain why and give suggestions to improve it if you can. Don’t give someone terrible feedback just because you don’t like the genre and take into account that if you are being asked to critique something it is a work in progress and will not be perfect. Try to be as thorough as you can- it is very brave to show an unfinished work to someone and even if you don’t like it, be nice and help them out.
Try not to parrot ‘golden rules’ of writing (you must write every day, you must never use the second person point of view, you must never ever use a cliché) because everyone works differently and a skilled writer can generally make just about any technique work.
Most importantly, tell the person the things that you like as well as the things you didn’t like. That way they know what they are striving for.
Now- on to the questions!
- General points
Did you enjoy the book overall?
Would you recommend it to a friend?
What genre would you class it as (Comedy, Horror, Young Adult etc)?
Which character did you most sympathise with?
Which character was the most interesting to read about?
Was the plot line easy to follow? Was it confusing or predictable?
Do you think the book was too long or short?
What were the main themes of the book?
Do you think the author was trying to make a point/emphasise a particular message or set of values?
Did it keep you interested?
- The beginning
Did the first paragraph grab your attention?
Did the first page want you to read on?
Did anything confuse you in the first chapter?
- Characters
Did any of the characters act in ways that didn’t seem to fit their personality?
Did the relationships between the characters seem realistic?
Did the characters seem well rounded and interesting? Could you imagine them being real people?
Were the characters distinct from each other, or did many of them seem very similar?
Is there anything that could improve any of the characters?
Who was the main character? Did you care about what happened to them?
- Dialogue
Did the speech sound natural and realistic?
Did any of the characters have accents or distinct patterns of speech?
Were the conversations believable?
Was dialogue ever used for obvious plot exposition?
Was any of the dialogue inappropriate for the characters and the setting? (Using modern slang in a historical novel, characters speaking in ways that don’t suit their age/social background)
Did all of the dialogue either advance the storyline or teach us about the characters?
- Description
Was there enough description to understand the storyline?
Did any of the description seem unnecessary or out of place? (For example a long chunk of description of clothing interrupting an action scene)
Can you picture the characters and settings in your head?
Was any of the description particularly effective? (Giving a good understanding of a character’s personality or setting the atmosphere well?)
- Point of View
Was the story written in first, second, or third person?
Were you able to sympathise with the point of view characters?
If the point of view changed at any point, was it clear that this was happening or was it confusing? (For example by changing point of view mid-scene)
Do you think the story worked well from this point of view or should it be changed?
Did the narrator have a distinctive voice?
Was it written in a way that was easy to understand, or did it make it hard for the reader to follow? (Such as too many long words or using too many fancy writing devices which distract from the plot?)
- Plot
Did you think there was a strong storyline running through the novel?
Were there any subplots? Do you think they added to the story?
Was there enough action? Did you feel there were parts where very little happened, or parts where too much was crammed into a small space?
Did everything in the plot seem believable and/or logical within the story, or did anything seem out of place?
What was your favourite part?
Were there any parts that should be missed out?
Does anything need more explanation?
- Factual Accuracy
Did you notice any factual errors in the piece?
Was everything in keeping with the setting? (No modern technology in the middle ages, no one wearing kimonos in 1840s England etc)
Please feel free to add your own to this list!
This is a great list to pass on to anyone you ask to do a critique of your work, especially if they have never done one before. You can tweak it and make it more specific to your book. It's quite lengthy but obviously you don't need to answer every question and it should get you thinking along the write lines.
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55,956 / 50,000
Dec 5, 2007 - 13 06
THANK YOU!!!! This is a great list of questions - not only for others critiquing the work, but also for authors who need a guideline (like me) for editing and evaluation of the WIP.
55,232 / 50,000
Dec 5, 2007 - 19 40
Thank you! I think that I'll use this for peer editing people's personnal narritives for a school project!
50,173 / 50,000
Dec 6, 2007 - 13 28
This is exactly what I would want answered about my own novel. THANK YOU!!!!
And this is exactly what I will use when critiquing others'!!
83,759 / 50,000
Dec 8, 2007 - 14 17
I just copied and pasted it for my own use and noticed that there's a beginning, but no end. So, liking symmetry as I do, I've thought of a few Ending questions based on different problems I've had reading different books or even watching movies:
The End
Did it come to a satisfying conclusion (not necessarily happy, but satisfying)?
Were any threads left hanging or were there any subplots that disappeared half-way through the book?
Was the ending confusing, in that you aren't really sure what happened or how it ended?
Was everything resolved too easily, as in a deus ex machina, where everything miraculously falls into place?
Were all the questions you had at the beginning at least addressed in some way, if not answered? (I put it this way because in series, some questions are deliberately left open to be answered in future books, but they still need to be acknowledged, not forgotten).
57,563 / 50,000
Dec 9, 2007 - 21 50
The End
Did it come to a satisfying conclusion (not necessarily happy, but satisfying)?
Were any threads left hanging or were there any subplots that disappeared half-way through the book?
Was the ending confusing, in that you aren't really sure what happened or how it ended?
Was everything resolved too easily, as in a deus ex machina, where everything miraculously falls into place?
Were all the questions you had at the beginning at least addressed in some way, if not answered? (I put it this way because in series, some questions are deliberately left open to be answered in future books, but they still need to be acknowledged, not forgotten).
Endings tend to vary on what you're writing and what culture you come from... ^^;; Just a note. And some books don't want a satisfying ending... Say horror... where the book ends with the end of a decision to say, enter the room and all you hear is a scream. What the ending should be is if it suits the story and the type of story that's told.
Cybele:
Perhaps some guidelines for receiving and dealing with critiques too? How to sort the information? How many times to breathe before plunging in and what kinds of questions to ask back... that way it's not all on the reviewer.... ^^;; You probably are already working on it, but I thought it's worth a shot mentioning. Holly Lisle has a great fmwriter article on the subject.
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Telling someone you're a writer is like telling them you're a bipolar schizophrenic that goes to AA meetings once a week.
58,744 / 50,000
Dec 10, 2007 - 06 45
RavenCorbie- thanks, I didn't even realise I had missed the ending out! As you can see, proofreading is not my strongest point!
83,759 / 50,000
Jan 15, 2008 - 21 40
Endings tend to vary on what you're writing and what culture you come from... ^^;; Just a note. And some books don't want a satisfying ending... Say horror... where the book ends with the end of a decision to say, enter the room and all you hear is a scream. What the ending should be is if it suits the story and the type of story that's told.
I know I'm a little late in replying to this, as well, I forgot all about it.
Hmm... I wasn't very clear, it seems. For "satisfying", I meant precisely what you're saying here: does it suit the story and the type of story that's told? A horror ending with that kind of ending would be satisfying to a horror reader.
And I completely agree about the fact that endings vary on what you're writing and the culture: however, I think that's true of the whole story, not just endings. That's why when we ask for and get critiques, we need to keep those things in mind. I just know that I've read some stories that seemed to be ended conclusively, except that I had no idea what happened. This is different from a deliberately crafted ambiguous end.