The five types of critique partners
The muses you meet along the way
I’ve been reflecting about my writing journey and I realized - just like any protagonist in a story - there are so many crucial people that help along the way.
And many of these vital (and wonderful) people are critique partners.
I always knew that CPs were important, but I didn’t fully realize this until two years ago when I had the tremendous fortune of meeting some incredibly talented people.
Just for fun, I started thinking about the different types of critique partners. Since I’m a bit of a sucker for personality archetypes, here were some of the critique partners I’ve encountered on my journey.
Of course, just like personality, not everybody fits into one box. I find that I often shift from one to the other, depending on the manuscript, person, and context.
The cheerleader
The path of publishing is fraught with rejection, heartache, and self doubt. During the times when you are nursing barbs and stings, this CP is an eternal ray of sunshine. They always find something they love about a story that you’ve shared. They can see the potential in your sh*tty first draft and their enthusiasm helps carry you forward to the next draft, and the next. They love exclamation points.
The rewriter
Good art is subjective, and often times writing is no different. The words and phrases that a writer chooses can often be a a reflection of their own personality. Or, sometimes, they purposefully choose words to convey a mood or a message. This CP has a strong voice, and can suggest other phrases in a manuscript that can take things to the next level. Or, sometimes, they can even think up new plot directions. It’s definitely a handy CP to have, especially to gain a new perspective when feeling stuck.
The thesaurus
This type of CP could technically be classified as a subset of the rewriter, but they are distinct because they single out certain words and suggest other specific words. This can be very helpful, since more colorful words add an additional depth. Or they are very handy when you just can’t figure out how to describe a certain emotion without Googling a German word equivalent. They have your back with fifty options.
The interrogator
This, subjectively, is my favorite type of CP. They approach a manuscript like a detective with a psychology degree. Instead of offering opinions, they ask crucial and pointed questions that often reveal places that you can lean into the emotional beat or areas that you need to clarify because you’ve held the information in your head. Their questions make you dig deeper to the heart of the story.
The scalpel
This CP is the one that catches all of your commas and dangling modifiers. They are the ones that have an eagle eye for any spelling errors, grammatical mishaps or other idiosyncrasies that you may have missed or are prone to repeat. I love this CP, especially when I feel close to finished with a story that I love. If you have a CP like this (as I do) give them a LOT of virtual hugs of gratitude.
For any fellow writer that made it this far -- am I missing any? What do you think, and which CP type do you tend to be?
On a separate note, I wanted to stay positive about these “types.” I fully recognize that there are some less than ideal CPs out there who are prone to focus more on the criticial part than the constructive part of the process.