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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25877
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/25877
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There are different types of critique/editing, and different benchmarks for each.

There is **content editing,** which can be more easily called critique, which deals with the actual story. Then there is **line editing,** also called proofreading.

You should first do your own line editing or proofreading to make the story as clean and legible as possible. A first draft can be rough, but it shouldn't be incoherent. That means spellchecking, correcting grammar, and generally correcting punctuation. If you know you have a problem with, say, comma splices, it's fair to ask someone to look over your manuscript just for syntax errors so that you can reach the next level.

That level is content editing, or critique. Your manuscript is ready for the story to be discussed when you feel like you really can't improve it any more without outside opinions, or in the case of a first draft when you're just sick of looking at it and you need to hand it off already.

If you are working one-on-one with a regular editor (that is, someone who looks at your writing regularly), it's okay for a first draft to have chunks of TK scenes — spots where you say "John waits for Mary in the aquarium with a loaded gun, she shows up and makes threats, and eventually he has to shoot her" and then take up from the next scene. That tells your editor what you want to accomplish even if you're not there yet. I wouldn't recommend this if it's your first time working with this person, or to do this with a larger group unless the group is okay with that kind of hole. But generally, you should have a complete, reasonably clean draft to present for content critique.

Original score: 1