I critique only children’s writing. I look at short stories, articles, and children’s book in all genres. I’m in a critique group as well as editing accepted submissions for Stories for Children Magazine. I don’t think I ever take off the critiquer hat.
I don’t charge a lot for a critique. My fee is $15 for 1,000 words or less and then $2 per page after that. When I critique someone else’s work, I look at it two ways. The first way I read the manuscript is as a reader. I love to read children’s books. I hardly ever read an adult genre book. So when I read a manuscript, I look at it as if I picked it off the shelf at the local book store or library. I make my notes from that perspective and then I go back through as an editor. For more information about my critiquing service and testimonials, writers can visit my site.
What mistakes do you keep encountering over and over when you critique other people’s manuscripts?
Formatting is the number one mistake I see as a critiquer and editor. A lot of people want to use fancy fonts or colored text. As a critiquer or editor this is very hard to read. Times New Roman 12pt font is best. Grammar is another area where I see lots of mistakes. The most common is the usage of commas, dashes, semi-colons, or quotes. A lot of rules of writing change over the years and if you don’t read current trade magazines or newsletters, then you’re missing some pretty important information.
One discussion came up, in an online form I was attending, about the use of italics for thought instead of underlining thought on a manuscript. At one time publishers wanted you to underline internal dialogue, but now, a lot of them have you using italics as the preferred way to show internal dialogue or thought. When I critique someone else’s work, I look for all of this on top of spelling, plot, character development, etc. The other big thing I see is pacing. Once you hook your reader you don’t want to lose them with too much detail or slowing in the plot. I see this happening a lot with writers who are in love with descriptive words. Yes you need to be descriptive, but you also need to let your reader use their imagination to fill in some of those blanks. Remember to “write tight”. If I wanted to see all the detail to a story, I’ll go watch a movie instead of reading a book. I like painting part of the picture the author starts to draw for me.
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