The Nine People You Meet at Writers’ Workshops

windsorchair.jpgReader Elizabeth Hanes read my post on the different kinds of people you encounter in your average writers workshop (strangely, they are all inferior to you.) She came up with another:

I did think of one other type I met during my undergraduate career: the Nitpicky Critter. This type of animal offers no useful, valid feedback on your story. Rather, they simply nitpick word choices and the like.
Here’s an actual critique I got from a nitpicker: “The story was OK, but this line really threw me out of it: ‘He sat down in the Windsor chair.’ What is a Windsor chair? Is it, like the Windsor family, prone to collapse at inopportune times? I’ve never heard of a Windsor chair before. I’m not sure there is such a thing.”
What?

What, indeed. If you know of any other prototypes, send them in.

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