1. I've never been published before so who am I to criticize?

and

2. I'm new here so who am I to criticize?

Who are you? You're a person who reads and has opinions. (If you don't read this probably isn't the best site for you, to be honest.) You know what you like and you know what you don't like. You are a part of the audience for the stories we hope to sell and in the most important of roles we would LOVE to hear what you have to say.

You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be right. There is no right, there is only opinion. In fact, that is the only trick to keep in mind when critiquing. It is always, "I think...." not "I know..." Follow that rule and you can't be wrong! Unlike in those bad English classes in high school where incompetent teachers would deduct points for students disagreeing with their opinions, we know that all opinions count and have value.

Do you have to have been published? No! My first publication came two months ago, ask people around here if they took me seriously before that. You bet they did, because I was always honest with my feelings and backed them up with as much details as I could. I'm a reader and I know what I like. Frankly, that's more valuable a tool for critiquing than any darn publication.

Do you have to have been here a while? No! Jump right on in and start sharing. Your critiques may get better as you participate for a while and learn better ways of phrasing your opinions, but who cares? The opinions don't change, only the presentation, and in the meantime jumping in the water is the best way to learn to swim.

For those of you newbies who still aren't convinced, let me paraphrase Card's wise reader approach to critiquing:

Pretend you are reading a book. As you read, you will occassionally find your subconsciouss asking the following questions:

"Oh yeah?" in disbelief

"Huh?" in confusion

"So what?" in boredom

All readers ask this question. A wise reader notices when he or she asks the question and writes it down, preferrably with a description of what part of the story caused the reaction.

That's it. That's all you have to do. If you feel uncomfortable saying anything else there is always the bare-bones, no elaborations, wise reader critique. Frankly, it is the most valuable critique there is. Sometimes a lot of suggestions, especially when they do not come with specific reasons, are far less useful than plain reactions. When critiquing a mystery, I like to keep the reader abreast of who I think did it. Why? So they know if they've laid their clues out properly. Well, all forms of fiction have goals they are trying to accomplish and all readers need that kind of feedback. The brilliant thing is that ANYONE AT ALL WHO READS IS QUALIFIED TO DO IT!

Critique, people! Do it often! That's how we learn! My first critiques here sucked canal water! But I did them anyway, and as I critiqued and received critiques I learned more and more.

As I see it, there's a cycle around here as well, that always must receive fresh critiquers if it to survive. It goes like this:

Newbies come on board. They give a few comments, some critiques, receive some, make friends, learn A LOT! As they learn their critiques improve, as their critiques improve so does their writing, as their writing improves they need critiques less and less. The fewer critiques they need the fewer they give. So the holes left by them in the Hatrack critiquing community need to be filled by more Newbies.