Writing: Dealing with Criticism
One thing all writers are going to have to deal with - Hell, most people no matter what they’re doing - is criticism. For most people, it can be very upsetting, and a lot of younger writers can get very defensive about their work. Which, of course, it all makes sense: no one wants to know that they’re baby isn’t as amazing as they thought.
Now, there are two types of criticism you can receive:
1. Constructive criticism, also called a critique, where you are given reasonable complaints and a detailed analysis on a work or part of a work where you can improve your work based on what they said.
2. Shitty criticism. Basically, things like “this sucks. This character sucks. Your pose suck, etc.” without any context to actually help you.
A few things that are important to remember: criticism of a piece of writing is not a reflection on you as a person or as a writer overall. It is based on reading that particular piece. It is also important to remember criticism can be helpful, but still rude or hurtful - but writers need to have a thick skin and be able to separate the helpful stuff from the shit. Also, not all criticism is equally helpful. A person might mean well, but they might be getting too nit-picky or sharing something that is just an opinion and not actually an objective issue with the writing.
Somethings you should definitely think about if they’re brought up in a critique:
If someone says something is too confusing or vague. Remember you wrote the piece, you know more than the audience does. To you, something might make perfect sense: a line of dialogue, what the setting looks like, how events play out, etc, but the audience only knows what you write or what is easily inferred. If someone finds something confusing, it might be worth it to double check and make sure there are enough details. Now, it’s completely possible that one reader might not be the brightest crayon in the box, so it’s also usually a good idea to get multiple opinions. If a number of people are confused, you should probably rework things.
Any confusions with tone. This will not necessarily come as a negative criticism. It might come as a compliment: “Lol this chapter was so funny!” But you meant it to be serious. When writing, sometimes it’s hard for tone to come out the way we interpret it. Have you ever sent a harmless text and someone got offended? Or tried to send an email and someone tells you it was “unprofessional” when you thought it was fine? Tone is something that can easily be missed or misinterpreted in writing, so if a few readers are interpreting the scene wrong, it might be a good idea to see how you can clarify what is happening.
When people complain about things being too convenient or just kind of happening. Sometimes as writers we are too focused on getting to a certain point in the story that we forget the story needs to flow logically and most events need to happen as a direct result of the things that came before it. Otherwise, we can fall into very convenient things happening to the protagonist and the world or Dues ex Machina’s coming to save the day. It’s also the type of thing a lot of readers might ignore or not pick up on right away, so someone pointing it out is probably either a very avid reader or a writer themselves.
Obviously, any helpful detailed criticism is something you should probably at least consider during editing or rewrites. Most importantly, remember criticism is important, and someone giving a detailed critique of your book isn’t trying to personally insult you. In fact, someone taking that time out of their day to do so is actually being really nice - free writing advice tailored to your book! Score!
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