Critique Story.
In most cases, you will start your critique with some of the points that worked for you in the story. How did the piece make you feel? What do you think the writer was trying to explore/achieve with the piece? What does the work do successfully? Where can it be made stronger? Here are some of the elements of craft that you may want to bring up when workshopping your classmates’ prose:
Structure and Plot: How does the story begin and end, the use of scene and summary, where in time does the story begin and end, the use of flashbacks, what happens in this story?
Worldbuilding: Do you believe in this world?
Dialogue: Does the writer use dialogue tags, does the dialogue seem “realistic,” does the dialogue move the story forward, is there tension in the dialogue, is the speech reported or is the dialogue spelled out.
Voice/Tone/Point of View: Who is telling the story, is it first, second or third person, is the narrator distant and omniscient or are we close to the protagonists point of view, is this the best choice for this story, how would changing this person telling the story change the work? Is the point of view consistent throughout the story, or does the author change points of view? If he or she changes point of view, is that confusing or distracting, or does that work for this story.
Main and Secondary Characters: What is the relationship between character and all the other elements of craft? Are the secondary characters important to the story? Do they help build the world of the story? How does character shape plot, and vice versa?
Images: the use of specific images, metaphors or simile. Does the writer help you see/hear/smell/feel/taste the world he/she has created? How can they do more?
Language or Poetry: How does the piece sound to the ear? Has the writer used language in a way that helps you feel his or her meanings?
Setting: Did the writer successfully bring you into his or her world? What is this world, what makes it compelling or not? What is the mood of this world?
Humor: How does humor work in this story? Is what happens funny? Or the language funny? What made you laugh?
