A Guide to Critiquing a Story: Seven Vital Elements Every Story Must Have
Frequently authors ask if I have a “form” that I used to help me critique a story. Given the large number of things that I look at in a story, any form that I had would simply be too long to be workable. Yet it makes sense to try to codify the critiquing process.
There are of course people who don’t believe that art can or should be measured. They might say, “Sure, this author uses the passive voice so much that his tale flows slower than cold tar, but his stunning insights are unsurpassed in literature.” They’d be right. Yet if you’ve ever had to judge stories professionally, you soon find that you have to devise some logic for deciding how to gauge the relative merits of tales, and I’ve been judging stories for contests and classes for some twenty years.
So I’m going to create a form that I might use to judge a story:
Story Critique Form
1. Originality. On a scale of 1 to 10, how original was this story? A 1 means that the story is cliché while a 10 means that it has at least a couple of ideas that I haven’t encountered before. ______
2. Setting. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well was the setting developed? A 1 indicates that the setting was poorly developed. This means that is almost completely disappeared from the story, or that I felt confused as to where and when the tale took place in one or more scenes. Of course, the author should involve all of the senses in describing his or her setting. A 10 means that not only is the setting well-developed, but it informs every aspect of the story—from character development to tone and narrative style. In a story that rates a 10, the setting itself is a powerful draw for the story, and the author succeeded in transporting me into the tale. ______
3. Characterization. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well-drawn are the characters in the story? Good characters should convince us that they grew up in the world or setting that we’ve placed them in. They should have complex motives and be imbued with conflicting attitudes about life, ethics, politics, and so on. The characters should have friends, enemies, acquaintances, secrets, desires and fears. The character should have a physical body, with a physical history. The character should have a family, of course, and some type of history, along with a place in society. In short, with a poorly drawn character, we know virtually nothing about him by the end of the story. With a well-drawn character, we feel as if we know him intimately by the end of the story. ______
4. Conflict and Plot. On a scale of1 to 10, how interesting are the conflicts? Since the characters, along with their motives and abilities really lead to a plot, then one must also consider the twists and turns of the plot. How inventive are they? How exciting? How engrossing? ______
5. Emotional/intellectual payoff. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did this story arouse powerful emotions? If it did arouse powerful emotions, were they the proper emotions for the intended audience (as gauged by the age and sex of the protagonists)? Remember that the author shouldn’t be hitting the same emotional beats over and over again. Instead, the author should be creating an emotional symphony, where counter-beats help raise the emotional payoff. ______
6. Theme. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well did this story speak to the reader? Does it raise interesting questions about life and provide profound insights? A rating of “1” means that I don’t really see either one. A rating of “10” means that the author astounded me. ______
7. Treatment. On a scale of 1 to 10, how masterfully was the tale written on a line-by-line basis? A poor story, a tale that earns a 1, might be difficult to read simply because of something like “pronoun reference problems,” or it may be marred by typos and grammatical problems. A tale worthy of a 10 will be written not only in language that is beautiful and evocative, but it will also move with effortless pacing. Too often, authors who write beautifully work too hard to impress the reader and end up cluttering the tale will too many metaphors or overwrought pacing. In doing so, they struggle to draw attention to themselves rather than tell a story. ______
These are the big-ticket items that I look for in a story. You’d think that there would be more, but as you can see I lump things into large categories. For example, an author’s “treatment” can include hundreds of items. An author might have a surprisingly large and facile vocabulary, and that would be a plus. Yet the same author might labor to create clumsy or artless similes and thus mar his work. General pacing and story flow might be part of the author’s style, or I might rank it under plotting, but it is taken into consideration.
There is one other consideration. How do you weight different categories? Is one element more important than the others?
Personally, I want a story that scores perfect tens in all categories, but I know authors who feel that in fantasy and science fiction, for example, a story with an original concept is solid gold. So a story that is fresh and original will beat out one that is beautifully written.
Similarly, in a genre such as romance, where you might well be writing with very strict guidelines, you might not be free to create radically unusual characters or unusual settings.
In short, the audience is looking for a product that delivers a powerful emotional charge. So in that genre, the story might be weighted toward emotional power.
In an upcoming post, I’m going to take the story form and break it down further, discussing some of the things that I look for when I’m considering each category.
Guest Blogger, David Farland, Coordinating Judge of the Writers of the Future Contest.
David Farland is an award-winning, international bestselling author with over 50 novels in print. He has won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Special Award for “Best Novel in the English Language” for his science fiction novel On My Way to Paradise, the Whitney Award for “Best Novel of the Year” for his historical novel In the Company of Angels, and many more awards for his work. He is best known for his New York Times bestselling fantasy series The Runelords.
The judging criteria you detail in your 9/2017 article are useful to me. Now, how about your take on how writers can do this on their own, i.e., when and how and what. How do you know when you nailed it. Some of the points I can see come before ever taking up the pen, like originality. That is the main area in which I fall down, I believe.
Lawrence, There are several articles on the blog site about writing from several of our Contest judges. Have a look to see if any of them answer your need. If not, let me know and I will request from one of our judges an article on how they deal with this issue.
I found this article very useful to me as well, but I have one problem. As I am not a professional judge I cannot properly evaluate which stories get a “10” in something.
The place to look, obviously, is the yearly anthology, where the best stories are found. However, as David Farland pointed out, not all the stories selected score a ten in all categories, if any did. So I read a story in the anthology (Useless Magic vol. 33, for example) and to me the dialogue seems stilted, the conclusion is drawn out and unsatisfying.
The problem is thus: I can’t be sure if my assumptions are correct and I should avoid these pitfalls, or am I simply not mature enough to understand it.
I would suggest the following (although I don’t know if it is reasonable) is that a few stories could be analyzed by the judges so that aspiring writers could know that: story A has a fascinating mileu and a strong theme, but it’s prose is weak, or, story B has a beautiful prose but it’s scientific veracity is questionable, etc.
Hello Reuben and thank you for your comment. I would recommend you join the WOTF Forum where you will find past winners and judges willing to help you out by reviewing your story and making suggestions. Here is the link: http://forum.writersofthefuture.com/
Thank you!
Is john goodwin the author of this article??
Can you help me in evaluating text content, elements, features and properties using a set of criteria?
What criteria would fall under content, elements, features and properties?
Hi Ana, We have created the Writers of the Future Forum which you can join and find others who help each other long with such matters. The link to join (it’s free) is http://forum.writersofthefuture.com/
I wish you well.
Best, John Goodwin
Describing the cultural and social setting of your fantasy world provides you with a great opportunity to use your imagination. These cultural and social settings basically contain the specific details and elements that make your world distinct and running. When writing your fantasy story, make sure to pay attention to such details as the common cultural practices, the political system, the history, and more. Aside from this, you should also make consistent rules for your fictional world. For example, if the characters in your fictional world are all wizards with magic, then establish such fact or rule all throughout your story. Do not make sudden changes, as doing so may tend to confuse your readers. You can find my blog here: https://www.daughtersoftwilight.com/a-general-guide-on-writing-fantasy-fiction/ hope it helps to your writing journey.
Thank you for your contribution and referenced blog.
This is one of the useful articles that I am looking for so long, and thanks to that Google brought me here. You ought to compose on the grounds that you love the state of stories and sentences and the production of various words on a page. Composing comes from perusing, and perusing is the best instructor of how to compose.
Extraordinary post! I will bookmark your blog and offer this to my companions. This is one of the extraordinary records with respect to sentimental anticipation books. Keep it up!
Thank you, Monique. I am glad you enjoy it. If you look at the website itself, http://www.writersofthefuture.com, you will also see that we have a Forum, podcast, free online writing workshop taught by Orson Scott Card, Tim Powers, and David Farland.
All the words written above are very helpful. I could compose recorded fiction, or sci-fi, or a secret however since I think that it’s intriguing to investigate the pieces of information of some little know period and build up a story dependent on that, I will likely keep on doing it. Please come and visit my blog on Tips and Tricks for Writing Historical Fiction
Hope this will help you as well.
Cheers
Keith
Loved your content John, very well-written!
I have been reading posts regarding this topic and this post is one of the most interesting and informative ones I have read. Thank you for this!
You are very welcome!
Great stories shock us. They cause us to think and to feel. They stick in our psyches and assist us with recalling thoughts and ideas such that a PowerPoint packed with visual diagrams won’t ever can. You can check out and visit my blog on https://byronconnerbooks.com/the-secrets-to-telling-a-powerful-story/
Great information. Fantasy is an important fixing in living, it’s a perspective on through some unacceptable finish of a telescope. Thanks for posting.
Fiction refers to literary works that are created from the imagination, rather than being based strictly on real events or facts. In fiction, authors invent characters, settings, and plotlines to tell a story.
Who wrote this blog post? A commenter named Ana asked “Is john goodwin the author of this article??” John Goodwin did not answer her, but did reply. I see John Goodwin replying to all the comments, Guest Blogger David Farland given a bio at bottom, and “by Joni Labaqui” printed at top. Please resolve this confusion. Thank you.
Hello Lori, Sorry this was confusing. This is John Goodwin responding to you now. David Farland (Wolverton) wrote this article some years ago. He since passed. Joni is the Contest Director and did not write this. I will get with the web admin and ensure in the future, that anytime a guest blogger posts a blog, they are credited as the author of that blog.
Hope this handles.