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Camilla Long and the Golden Hatchet Award. Constructive criticism how to give it and how to take it.

3/1/2013

3 Comments

 
Not quite at the point of retiring my thermal underwear, today at least there is sunshine and a lift in the temperature. Warm it is not, but then neither is it actually freezing and the vile Siberian wind that afflicts Norfolk has dropped or changed direction, or gone elsewhere and I am thankful for it. Yesterday evening I watched with undisguised wonder as a Barn Owl swooped low over its prey in a marshy parcel of land in Itteringham and as I look out of my study window the smaller garden birds, who have also cheered up, are chirruping and dashing about between the hedges. And those ominous crows have stopped making that sinister craw sound that typifies February and its leaden skies.

My cat, Daisy, likes to jump up and peer at these smaller birds out of the study window. I have a touch screen computer, so as she weaves her feline way over my desk her tail swishes the screen leading to all sorts of unwanted cat interventions in my text. She is a very persistent cat, nearly fifteen, and suffering from thyroid trouble, it makes Daisy needier, vocal and very hard to ignore. I was hoping that here in the countryside she would become more at ease with the outdoors and exhaust herself chasing flies, the concept of preying on birds is quite beyond her, but like many pensioners she remains wary of venturing far and still hasn't come to terms with my neighbour’s distant geese.

Currently I am teaching two groups of writers, one a small mentoring workshop and the other a site-specific course based on the World Art collection at the Sainsbury Centre. Whenever I embark on a course with a new group of writing students there is a period of adjustment as they become familiar with one another and the texts and varied styles of writing. Writing makes us both powerful and vulnerable. Powerful, because we have ultimate control over characters and narrative; vulnerable, because writing frequently exposes aspects of our hidden self. Critiquing work is an essential part of any course; it is probably the most important aspect to writers who want to improve their craft, trial creative ideas and seek validation for their work from their peers. I like to steer a gentle path through what could be critical carnage if it were to get out of hand. We approach the text with certain questions in mind: Where are we? Who are we? What is happening?  We later examine characterisation, plot, dialogue, point of view, authorial voice and narrative drive.

Constructive criticism is invaluable to the writer if they can separate the useful from the inappropriate and so long as they don’t feel that it is they, rather than their writing, which is being judged.  I work on the principle that if three people point out an issue I really do need to go back and do something about it. There is always the difficult issue of getting work read, particularly if the group is large. I aim to rotate, so ideally no one has to wait more than two sessions before their work is discussed. Occasionally I invite students to take over another writer’s story, becoming their editor, or I set them off with an opening sentence and pass the paper around the group to add a sentence at a time; the results can be informative and hilarious, detaching the author from the intense relationship with their writing and encouraging them to release their grip and be open to editing and re-writing. My mantra with one group was edit, edit, edit; born out of the frustration of finding work arriving back at the group with only one, or at best, two words altered and nothing excised at all. Most successful is the instruction to cut five hundred words; impossible they say, but it turns out to be perfectly possible and beneficial in almost every case. I often find writing students whose self-confidence has been dented; born into an era where vanity was regarded sinful and expressed feelings an indulgence, they can present as edgy, diffident or defensive, but given time, constructive criticism and encouragement they flourish.

When I was at art school there was the horror that was the ‘group crit’ where three tutors and your entire cohort and any passing third year, laid into your work which was pinned up on the studio wall. Fleeing and weeping in the loo was a common response because this was brutal; unless you were the favoured one; the could-do-no-wrong student, the related to a famous designer student, or, and we had one of these, daddy is a senior lecturer in another department, you were made to feel utterly beyond hope. Not so long ago I encountered a writing tutor who was needlessly vicious and withering. There really is no place for this in a learning environment, I am not advocating an all must win prizes mentality, but if it is beyond your whit to professionally critique work with focused honesty and discretion then you shouldn't be teaching.

And what of criticism in the public arena? Book reviews play an important role in bringing authors to public attention; they are the first thing that I read in the Sunday papers. I review books online at Amazon, I find it a good discipline, learning to summarise and critique novels.  You may have read that Camilla Long of the Sunday Times won the Golden Hatchet Award having written an excoriating review of Rachel Cusk’s  Aftermath. You can read the full review by following the link below, but to give you a flavour here are some examples of Ms Long’s deft wielding of the hatchet.

‘Cusk herself seems extraordinary – a brittle little dominatrix and peerless narcissist …’

‘Cusk isn’t vengeful, just moany;’

‘Acres of poetic whimsy and vague literary blah,’

Is it me, or does that sound like an unnecessarily personal attack, rather than a considered critique? Do we need an award that celebrates a hatchet job? I always enjoy the Bad Sex Award, last year’s winner the American author David Guterson for Ed King, was announced at the aptly named ‘In and Out Club’ in London by Barbara Windsor - the spirit of this award is clearly light-hearted and humorous. While Camilla Long’s review is a refreshing change from authors writing glowing reviews of their friend’s novels, I prefer Elspeth Barker’s reviews some of which are contained in her recently published anthology Dog Days. Barker never shirks from telling it like it is, but sticks firmly to important issue, the book.  An award for an outstanding review is welcome, but a hatchet job, is that quality reviewing or is it simply mean-spirited and downright nasty?

http://www.hatchetjoboftheyear.com/Camilla-Long-on-Aftermath-by-Rachel-CuskThe-Sunday-Times

3 Comments
Amanda Addison link
3/1/2013 07:30:28 pm

A very thought provoking piece. The whole issue of critiquing and reviewing work is never straightforward. Thank you, Patricia, for setting me thinking about the whole reviewing and critique process.
Recently, I was intrigued to see what star rating the global bestselling Fifty Shades series achieved on reader sites. It often hovers at around three stars, but on a closer breakdown reveals that reviewers are completely polarised, most frequently giving it a one or a five star. So in effect the average rating tells us nothing at all, beyond how averages are achieved.

One of my personal review/critique niggles is the response of reviewers to a character they don’t like. Far too often a book/extract is slated when the reader doesn’t like the main character. Of course, as a reader we do need to go on a personal journey with the main character, but whether we wholly like or dislike them or not isn’t always the crux of things. For example, the Booker prize winning novel, Disgrace by Coetzee central character, Lurie, is often not altogether likeable. As humans none of us are altogether likeable, and the skill of a good writer is surely to create a believable character with which to go on an emotional journey.
Finally, a writer friend (and book reviewer) once told me that the most interesting thing about any book review is what it tells you about the reviewer, rather than the book. Enough said. Food for thought!

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Lucy McCarraher link
3/1/2013 07:57:42 pm

It's always good to review the way you feed back to writers - and this piece reminds me to remember the traditional feedback sandwich approach: start with the positive, follow with points for consideration, and finish with more positive. It's not just kind, it's effective in allowing them to consider what might need work in the context of what they do well.
As an editor, I leave lots of comments in the margin for authors, mostly suggesting improvements and therefore critical. I re-read all my comments before rerturning edited manuscripts to make sure my language is not irritable or liable to upset, and try to balance with an overview including all the positives in a covering letter. As an editor it's also important to pitch your critique at a level the writer is capable of working with.
I'm sharing this post on http://www.facebook.com/RethinkPress . Please come and 'like' our page for more tips, links and quotes on writing and publishing.

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Joanne Harris link
3/2/2013 06:05:42 pm

Lovely piece. I think many critics confuse literary criticism and attempted mind-reading. This unwarranted personal attack on the author, rather than the work, says far more about the critic than about anyone else. Being self-consciously clever at the expense of a colleague isn't really criticism at all; it's the equivalent of mooning at the cameras in order to get attention. The media already rewards bad behaviour with attention far too often. Do we really need a prize for it?

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