The Great Critique Guidelines

How it will work for Writers, In-Person: 

1. Choose the faculty member you would like to work with. You’ll be in a group of up to 6 peers and the faculty member. Choose only one faculty member – make sure you read their bios to see what genre they are critiquing. You must choose a faculty member when you register.

2. Send a maximum of five double-spaced pages or 1200 words. DO NOT send more. Use standard manuscript format; see the link below if you are not familiar with that. For picture books, please send the entire manuscript, up to 1200 words.

3. Email your manuscript to coordinator Lia Upton no later than Saturday, June 7th or as soon as possible after registering (if registering after June 7th), and mention in your email which faculty member you signed up for. Be sure to include your first and last name in the file name, saved as FirstNameLastName_GCms.docx (e.g., SuzanneSmith_GCms.docx to [email protected]).

4. You will also need to bring 7 copies of your manuscript for everyone at your table. During the critique session, each participant will read aloud from their work while others make notes on the manuscript. They’ll write down what they like, mark errors they see, and indicate where they are confused or have questions.

5. The faculty member will verbally critique your work. If there’s time, other participants may comment.

6. You’ll receive your copies with written comments from everyone in your group. Take them home and let the ideas simmer.

How it will work for Writers, Virtual:

1.  Choose the faculty member you would like to work with. You’ll be in a group of up to 6 peers and the faculty member. Choose only one faculty member – make sure you read their bios to see what genre they are critiquing. You must choose a faculty member when you register.

2. Send a maximum of five double-spaced pages or 1200 words. DO NOT send more. Use standard manuscript format; see the link above if you are not familiar with that. For picture books, please send the entire manuscript, up to 1200 words.

3. Email your manuscript to coordinator Lia Upton no later than Saturday, June 7th or as soon as possible after registering (if registering after June 7th), and mention in your email which faculty member you signed up for. Be sure to include your first and last name in the file name, saved as FirstNameLastName_GCms.docx (e.g., SuzanneSmith_GCms.docx to [email protected]).

4. A day or two before the event you will be emailed a Zoom link along with some basic critique group guidelines. We recommend a high speed internet connection and a quiet space or headphones. We’ll meet as a large group for faculty introductions, and then go to breakout rooms for small group critiques. 

5. During the critique session, each participant will read aloud from their work. Please print a copy of your manuscript to read from. Your faculty member will screen share your pages, so others can follow along, but it is best if you read from your own copy. 

6. The faculty member will verbally critique your work. If there’s time, other participants may comment. Take notes, as you will not receive written comments. Let the ideas simmer.

How it will work for Illustrators, Virtual: 

1. You will be in a group of up to 6 peers and a faculty member. Make sure you choose the illustration faculty member when you register. Read the faculty bios to see who is critiquing illustrations.

2. Send up to 5 of your best portfolio pieces or the first 5 images from a dummy.

— Each image should be approximately 500 KB.

— Dummy excerpts NO larger than 3 MB. (*Tip: Prep individual images before assembling as a PDF to keep size below 3 MB. Saving images as JPGs will maintain image quality but use less memory. If your file is still too large, either reduce the physical page size of your images or, if your version of Adobe Acrobat allows, use the File-Reduce File Size option. If you still have problems, contact Robin at [email protected])

— Please include your first and last name in each file name (e.g. JulieJones_GCportfolio.jpg or JulieJones_GCdummy.pdf). 

— Email to coordinator Lia Upton no later than Saturday, June 7th at [email protected]. Please mention the name of your chosen faculty member in your email.

3. Bring 7 copies of your work for the other participants (grayscale and small size is fine). One of these could be full color and size to best showcase your work.

4. During the session, each participant will introduce their portfolio pieces. Others will take notes, jotting down what they like, what doesn’t work for them, and any questions they have.

5. The faculty member will verbally critique your work. If there’s time, other participants may comment. You will receive written comments from the other participants. Let the ideas simmer.