courtesy of herval
By Jennifer Blanchard
As a writer, if you’re interested in making your writing better, you will, at some point, have to subject yourself to constructive criticism.
At first, this can be very difficult. It’s hard to hear someone say critical things about the writing you spent so much time on and put your heart into.
But this criticism, when used correctly, can make your writing a thousand times better.
Here is how to make the most of a critique:
- Prepare Yourself–You are doing it. You are finally going to let someone read your writing. This is a huge step, so congratulations. But before you get on with the critique, it’s a good idea to make sure you are 100 percent OK with this. If you go into the critique ready for it, you’ll get a much better result than if you go into it with an attitude or thinking that the person is going to “cut you down.”
Once you’re ready to fully accept criticism, move on to step two.
- Choose a Constructively Critical Reader–You want to make sure you ask someone to critique your work who will be constructive and give you ideas and suggestions for making your writing better. Criticism of your writing should always be constructive. If the person you asked for a critique is being mean, making fun or just completely rude, you have every right to ignore him/her (and never ask them to critique your work again!).
- Read Through Everything First–Once the person has critiqued your writing, the next thing you’ll want to do is read through all their comments. Don’t judge any of the comments or get defensive and start explaining why you wrote it this way or that way. Just take it all in.
- Be (and Remain) Open-Minded–A constructive critique can easily put you on your defenses if you don’t approach it with an open mind. The person is there to help you. And you asked them to, so you should give them the benefit of the doubt and at least consider what they are telling you.
- Understand that Constructive Criticism Will Make Your Writing Better–After you’ve worked on something for so long, it’s hard to let it go. It’s hard to be open to someone telling you it’s not perfect or that it needs more work. But ultimately, this is the information you need to get to that next step in your writing career. The more you accept criticism and learn how to use it, the better your writing will be.
- Consider that You Don’t Know Everything–It’s your writing, which means you are extremely close to the project. And being thisclose to the project stops you from having another perspective. That’s why criticism is so important. The people who read and critique your work will be reading it for improvement. They will be reading to help you make it better.
- Remember the Choice is Yours–You asked this person to read and constructively criticize your writing. But that doesn’t mean what this person says goes. Although their advice is appreciated, you are ultimately the decision-maker. You are the one who decides which comments you use and which you ignore.
To get the best critique possible, you want to ask someone who actually knows what he/she is talking about. So while your mom, sister or significant other might read it and just “love, love, love it!” A critical reader, who has some experience in writing, will make a much better reader.
I recently asked one of my good friends–a magazine editor who has written three books of her own–to read and critique my first novel. I was a bit nervous as this is a woman I look up to, as well as appreciate advice from.
She ended up coming back to me and saying that overall the story was solid, interesting and definitely sellable…but my main character needed a major overhaul. She said the main character was immature and she wanted to slap her the entire time.
Ouch!
But having her say that to me really made me go back and look at my character through her viewpoint. Turns out, she’s right! So now I’m going back and tweaking some parts of the book so the main character’s immaturity is intentional, as opposed to annoying and lame.
Having my writer-friend critique my book felt awesome. While there is still a lot of work ahead of me, I at least now know what I need to do to make my book better.
How about you? Have you had your work critiqued? How did it work for you? Any additional ideas for getting the most out of a critique?
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
I’ve had my work critiqued in groups and by individual readers. The group was overall positive. It was interesting that I knew “something wasn’t right” with my main character when I joined the group – she was too shrill. The feedback was that she was too one-dimensional. So I knew in my gut what was wrong, but needed specific feedback to point me in the right direction.
One difficult aspect of getting critiques was not understanding going into it that I needed to filter out comments from readers who didn’t “Get” my work or have an affinity for my type of story. One of my short stories received some feedback that was “send it out now” and others who didn’t think it worked. It ended up receiving an honorable mention in a contest. That helped me to start identifying my audience.
Finding the right people to critique has a huge impact on how you feel about the critiques and about your writing.
I’m a fantasy writer and used to belong to a writing group that focused on literary writing. After being in the group for a year or so, I felt that my writing sucked and that I was a horrible writer. In fact I took 3 years off from writing because of it.
There was nothing wrong with the group or their critiquing skills, but their interests and mine just didn’t intersect and so their critiques ended up quite negative and damaging.
It is just as much an art to give a critique as it is to read a critique. It’s always important to remember that people are going to find fault. I’ve run into a lot of people who expecting to get praise and are very rudely shocked when people tell them the writing needs work–a lot of work.
But it’s also important to think for yourself when considering a critique. I’ve seen people arbitrarily make the changes everyone recommends, not taking the time to think if the changes were actually correct. If there’s any doubt at all about a comment, wait for a while. Nothing’s going to happen if you wait.
For me, my story is in omniscient viewpoint, a decision I made with a lot of time, thought, and experimentation. I submitted a chapter for critique. Not one person paid attention to content. They all zoomed in on the viewpoint and started making predictions of doom. I was told that I would never get published if I used the viewpoint; “I hate omniscient!”; “Eew. It’s in omniscient.” When I answered one person’s questions about why I used it (there are about ten reasons), all I got back was, “Why can’t do it in third?” I ended up walking away from the critique second guessing my viewpoint choice and wondering if it was the right choice. Instead of doing anything, I set the book aside for six weeks so I could get past the emotional reaction. Once I did that, I was able to cherry pick a few comments between the omniscient rants that did give me good information on something I needed to fix, and the rest I just ignored. I was glad I stopped to get some distance from the critiques.
L.M. Adams
@CathrynG Audience is SO important when it comes to writing and especially writing critiques. I write chick lit, which many, many people will tell you makes me lame. But there are also TONS of chick lit readers who will be dying to pick up my first book.
So it all balances out. It’s just like you said, a matter of finding your audience.
@Alex Fayle Yep, you definitely have to find a critiquer who’s interests are similar to what you write. In my case, my critiquer-friend is a mystery writer/reader, but she was still able to objectively read and critique my book.
@garridon Great points! Giving a critique is an art. It’s extremely difficult to do (in my opinion). I’m still learning myself!
Taking a step back is always a good way to give yourself time to mull things over. I believe Stephen King (in his book On Writing) suggests putting your first draft away for at least 6 weeks before you start editing it. The longer the better, as it helps you be more objective.
This is a great post. If only all workshop participants could approach things this way! Too often workshop comments either are too kind (trying to curry favor), or too mean (the comments of a jealous rival). I teach creative writing during the year, and take workshops at writers conferences during the summer, and I’ve come to really value the “constructively critical” workshop. It seems like it’s up to the workshop leader to set the correct tone.
@Kimberly Davis You’re right. It is up to the workshop leader to not only set the correct tone, but to also teach the people in the workshop HOW to constructively critique a piece of writing. I think that’s one aspect of all the creative writing workshops I’ve taken that’s always been missing.
I thought I am the only one who feels bad when someone criticizes my work. But after reading your blog, I understood that it is natural to feel that way. Thanks for sharing. Now, I will be more “open” towards the criticisms. Best wishes for your book.
Yes, if you are part of a group, it is the responsibility of the leader/facilitator to set the ground rules and enforce them. The most important rules are those that focus the readers on the words on the page, and support the reader in expressing what they “got” from those words. When the writer listens to a reader talk about their experience with the written piece, the writer learns what exactly was communicated, which will vary by reader (young, old, male, female, ethnic/religious background, education level, etc. – all make a difference). Then it’s up to the writer to decide whether they were successful (the reader “heard” what the writer meant to say), or not (the reader heard something different than what they meant). When the focus of the group stays on the words, the critique is much less personal, and if the writer really listens, they can learn valuable lessons.
You want to know something? To me constructive criticism is an *excuse* because most of the time, the criticizer isn’t a fair writer and they should keep their opinions to themselves especially if they think that their own writing isn’t up to the standard of another writer’s so that it will not seem like a common hypocrisy and I wonder why people that usually loved a fanfic or a story will turn around and become comical when they are actually pitying the writer. That’s not a fair criticism anyways so who cares?
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