In Praise Of Cloud Critiques
Gosh, what good fortune to find the Cloud. You put a chapter up in
critiques, and half a dozen people give their views, sometimes
coming back to add elaborations. What's so good about that? It's
half a dozen viewpoints, that's what.
Yes, it's great to pay for a professional critique, but that critique, however insightful, will ultimately be one person's view. Okay, that person has lots of experience and expertise to back up what they say - well worth investing in.
For that matter, it could be well worth investing in two - from different companies - although that's where you might begin to feel uneasy. It's always possible that the well considered, well argued critique from company (a) might say something quite opposite to the well considered, well argued critique from company (b).
This is bound to happen sometimes - because what are we dealing with? Human reactions. How consistent are human reactions? Blessedly inconsistent. And that's why Cloud Critiques are such a valuable adjunct. You know you can't please all the people all of the time, but if you get half a dozen reactions you have more chance of seeing the general effect of your work.
In my case, it was a chapter that, for various reasons, I could no longer see as clearly as I wished. Consequence? There were some things I simply did not see at all. What happened? Some people pointed out some things, others pointed out others. The benefit? Lots of pointing = lots of things pointed at = more chance they would spot something I had not seen.
Ah Cloud, truly thou are mighty in thy works.
Yes, it's great to pay for a professional critique, but that critique, however insightful, will ultimately be one person's view. Okay, that person has lots of experience and expertise to back up what they say - well worth investing in.
For that matter, it could be well worth investing in two - from different companies - although that's where you might begin to feel uneasy. It's always possible that the well considered, well argued critique from company (a) might say something quite opposite to the well considered, well argued critique from company (b).
This is bound to happen sometimes - because what are we dealing with? Human reactions. How consistent are human reactions? Blessedly inconsistent. And that's why Cloud Critiques are such a valuable adjunct. You know you can't please all the people all of the time, but if you get half a dozen reactions you have more chance of seeing the general effect of your work.
In my case, it was a chapter that, for various reasons, I could no longer see as clearly as I wished. Consequence? There were some things I simply did not see at all. What happened? Some people pointed out some things, others pointed out others. The benefit? Lots of pointing = lots of things pointed at = more chance they would spot something I had not seen.
Ah Cloud, truly thou are mighty in thy works.
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12 Comments
Jock - fascinating the feedbacks should be different. Could you specify how?
1. When someone confirms that niggling hunch that won't go away
2. When someone looks at something in a completely different way, or from a different angle that hadn't occurred to you before.
Also, I think critiquing requires a certain amount of moral courage; no point doing it if you're not gonna be honest, but hard to avoid hurting the writer's feelings - which I've done on occasion, oops. Often I've decided not to comment cos of that, even though I could have contributed something helpful.
No-one has the God-given right to be loved and it's only fair to be honest with each other. I will if you will.
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