Wednesday, March 16, 2016

A Novel Idea at Coffee and Critique

The latest change at Coffee and Critique is a result of a brilliant suggestion from long-time member Jack Zerr.

In addition to critiquing essays, articles, short stories, and chapters from novels, our group will begin reviewing entire manuscripts in bulk.

Jack developed some draft guidelines, which were distributed in advance of our Tuesday meeting. During our meeting we discussed and made suggestions to the draft guidelines. Comments received from members unable to attend the meeting were also included in the discussion.

Based on our feedback and consensus, Jack is making revisions. Notably, we will allow four weeks to read each manuscript before providing comments, and comments will focus on an overview summary rather than detailed copyediting/proofreading.

Sarah Angleton, secretary of Coffee and Critique, graciously volunteered to send out future completed manuscripts to all participants. Les Thompson was volunteered (by Jack, I believe) to serve as sergeant-at-arms in case the discussion gets out of hand. (JK! Ha! Ha!)

The first manuscript we will provide our summary review on belongs to Doyle Suit.

Participating members will deliver typed comments to Doyle at our meeting on April 12, during which time we will also discuss our impressions of and suggestions for his manuscript.

How's that for a novel idea?