Line by line critiques

(Originally posted at Gazebo.)

Different boards seem to have different expectations when it comes to line-by-lines. Recently, I joined an email group with some old friends, and I got a detailed lbl on a poem. My reaction was one of dismay. I thought "There is a forest here, not just trees."

Which made me start thinking about lbl critiques in general. And it made me realize that I don't like them. I don't like giving them (though I used to) and I don't like receiving them. I think the tendency toward giving them results in a habit of nitpickery instead of treating the poem as a choerent whole that should be judged as a coherent whole.

A few years ago someone said that her problem with workshops is they assumed the poem was broken instead of assuming the poem was finished. That observation really hit home with me, and changed my approach to workshopped poems. With that change came my change in attitude toward line by lines. I wouldn't read a novel and critique it that way. I wouldn't read a book of poems and critique each one that way. Only as an exercise would I break a poem down into its components in such a way. So why would I do so in a workshop?

So, here are my thoughts:

1. Line by line critiques encourage fault finding and nit picking.

2. Poems are more than the sum of their parts and few poems can withstand such total deconstruction.

3. Poems should be approached as if they were complete and only when that author wants more specific information should the poem be dissected.

4. Line by line critiques inject too much of the critiquer and do not often benefit anyone but beginning writers.

5. Line by line critiques take too much time and discourage workshop participation.

What say you?