After that one book club member called my character analysis 'surface level,' I started looking up themes before meetings

She said I was just describing what happened instead of why it mattered, so now I spend 20 extra minutes finding three deeper interpretations to bring up, and the discussions have been way better - has anyone else gotten feedback that totally changed how you prepare?

2 comments

2 Comments

king.river1mo ago

Man that stings but honestly it's the best thing that could have happened to you. I had a professor in college just flat out tell me my essays were just plot summaries with no analysis and it wrecked me for a week. But what I started doing was writing down one line for what happened in a chapter and then three lines for why it mattered or what it said about the character. It forced me to stop just reporting and start actually thinking. You might also try picking one tiny detail like a repeated color or a weird pause in dialogue and ask yourself why the author put that there. That's where the good stuff hides. Soon you'll be the one people look to for the deep takes.

richard_roberts801mo ago

@king.river that's a terrible idea. Analysis kills the joy of reading for me.

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