Why Read and Critique (from Writing Alone, Writing Together by Judy Reeves)

• Because you can never hear your work for the first time

• Because you can never be totally objective

• Because you lose perspective after a while

• Because you never know how your work will affect readers

• Because reading your work to an audience changes it for you

• Because different listeners/readers have different reactions to the same words

• Because you can learn from other writers' reactions as well as their comments

• Because it can bring up questions you didn't know to ask

• Because it can help you pinpoint problems you sense, but cannot identify

• Because your intuition will be confirmed and you'll learn to trust yourself more

• Because it can help you to separate yourself from your work

• Because it helps you develop your own critical sense

    The Muse works a crowd