As the Screw Iowa Writers Group prepares for their summer writing workshop, they’re sending their manuscripts out to one another. We like to have enough time to read all the pages and prepare our suggestions and edits for each other. (Sorry, ladies! I will get my pages to you by the end of this week! I promise!) Some of us will send out really rough drafts, others will send out pieces we read last year that have undergone extensive revision and polishing. Some of the manuscripts we read will be ready to submit for publication, others may end up in a heap of “good, but rejected attempts at writing.” Since we’re sending out such a range of work to one another, a useful tool is providing a list of questions with our manuscripts.
Directed peer editing is a helpful way to get what you want out of your writing group. By sending out your manuscript with a list of questions, you’ll make better use of your readers’ time and effort and get more specific suggestions out of them. I wouldn’t want my writing group to take a red pen and harshly work over a manuscript that is in rough draft form–chances are that many of those pages will get cut and they’ve put all that expert work into editing that wasn’t necessary. Alternately, if I’m really satisfied with a piece and only want “fine-tuning” suggestions, I’ll feel annoyed to receive my piece back with major overhauls written into the margins. (Of course, I’d want major problems brought to my attention, and a good editor takes a piece where it’s at, which Marni, Mariana, Lauren and Nina are very good at doing.)
On the same tack, if you’re working with new writers who aren’t familiar with how to edit well, a list of questions will direct their attention in a way that is helpful to you as an author. A beginning editor will only point out spelling mistakes and praise you for everything else. If you want more out of that kind of reader, you have to tell them what you want them to look for in your manuscript.
Some great questions to attach to a manuscript you’ve submitted to your writing group might include:
* At any point did the story lag or become boring to you? Was the pacing good or did some parts read too slow?
* Do you have questions about my story? (Perhaps something needs further development or explanation, like a relationship between characters or a plot point.)
* Did my characters come alive off the page? Did any of them require more description?
* Do I have too many characters?
* What should I cut from this piece?
* Does the dialogue sound realistic?
* Are you always clear on the setting in each scene?
* Do I have enough or too much description?
* Do you want to read more?
* Does the ending feel satisfying? If not, what feels “off” or incomplete?
Tell us, are you in the habit of giving your writing group questions with your manuscript drafts?
