But what do you do about the person who spends a half an hour lecturing you on how you position the word "said" in a sentence. For example: "Kith me," said Pierced-tongue girl vs. "Kith me," Pierced-tongue girl said?
How do you respond to the person who says, "I'm sure there is some way WE can salvage your story."
(These examples are based on incidents that may have actually occurred, but let's pretend they are made up.)
Answer:
When person A begins repeating himself, interrupt (politely, of course) and say, "Thank you for the information. I will think about it."
When person B drops her bomb, ask for the specific things that bother her about your manuscript. Listen politely while mentally reviewing everything that sucks about HER mss. Just joking (sort of).
If there are two people in your group that give useful feedback, listen to them and ignore the others!
You can set ground rules so that no one dominates the critique session. You can create a reminder sheet about how to give critiques, eg. make SPECIFIC instead of GENERAL comments.
Note: I still remember the time person C called my main character shrill. (BTW, that is a general comment.) So, I asked for specifics. The specifics showed me that person C found my MCs thoughts overly dramatic, which clarified the issue for me.
Over the years, I've received helpful feedback by the truckload...but for some reason the negative feedback resonates in the echo chamber for a long time.
So...phrase your comments on other people's manuscripts very carefully.
The SCBWI website has a comprehensive how-to on critique groups.
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