[stylist] posting, critiquing and editing

[Chris Kuell]

Barbara (and others)

One of the best ways to improve your self-editing and writing skills is to 
critique others work. And don't take critique to mean harsh comments, but 
rather, how might I make that better? I'm not a poet, and don't feel in the 
least qualified to critique poetry, but I do enjoy poetry, and I know I 
prefer shorter poems that are subtle, use symbolism and leave me wondering. 
I love a strong image that is expressed in a way that has never occurred to 
me.

I'm more comfortable critiquing prose. I think I have fairly good editing 
skills in that area, in part because I've been studying others work for 
years. I know most of the rules, yes, but I also recognize things that don't 
work, or when a writer overuses a certain word or phrase, or has a POV 
shift, or has flat, cookie-cutter characters, etc... It's much easier to 
spot in others work, but it also helps me to see it in my own.

One idea on sparking life into this group is to post and do writing 
exercises. An example would be to write something--poem, short story, 
memoir, whatever--about Christmas. Set a deadline and everybody post 
something, and comment/critique others posts. I believe it would help us all 
to grow as writers, but when I tried this a few years ago it went over about 
as well aspickle flavored ice cream.

chris