By Elise Schumacher & Stephanie Avro

This week we were challenged in Monday’s class to give one another feedback on either our PB2 drafts, or on other critical reviews that we have been working on. For a lot of us, giving and receiving feedback can be awkward and uncomfortable, but we are steadily growing better at it. Alexia read only the first sentence of our reviews, and gave us some excellent advice to take on for our writing across all fields: to always rewrite your introductory sentence and see how that manipulates the quality and both yours and other readers perception of the piece.

Simran Hans (UK) and Philippa Hawker (AUS) discuss how to pitch to editors

On Wednesday we participated in Q&A session with Critics Campus Mentors, Simran Hans (UK) & Philippa Hawker (AUS). Both well established writers this was a great opportunity to learn of what exists beyond our weekly tutorials. Opening the floor to us students, conversation seemed to steadily shift toward the idea of ‘pitching’, posing stories for publications to print, an area both Hans and Hawker are well familiar with. Introducing concepts such as a ‘Cold Pitch’, (sales approach to brand without any prior rapport), was a learning experience for I’m sure many students. The basic notes of pitching, as according to Hans are as follows:

• Don’t waste a pitch on being too general, be specific, (keep it short)
• Introduce yourself and text voice
• Pitch a story, not an idea
• Keep it tailored to publication
• Include 3 examples of short published works
• Pitch to multiple publications
• Establish upfront if it is a paid job- ‘follow up with “what’s the deadline and fee?”’”.

We also discussed the specifics of a ‘writer’s voice’ and how the current media landscape has caused for many to change in order to appear ‘commerical’ to a wider audience- similar to Week2’s panel discussion, Critical Failure: Film. When asked how to develop on our own voice and tone, Hans and Hawker both assured that ‘If you write a lot, your authoritative voice will develop and come…It’s not something you look for or seek out’.

Taking us beyond the classroom, this session allowed us students to view the art of critical reviews from an international space.