Dealing with critiques can be a multilayered challenge. There are horror stories of violent critics steamrollering personality, style and ego. Of writers blown to smithereens who don’t dare put finger to keyboard for the next decade. Stuff happens.
Both positive and negative comments often get inflated in importance because it’s often hard to get people to critique in the first place. You’re more primed than an oiled box of TNT by the time the first comment hits the fan. Whether they like it or loathe it your reaction is likely to be explosive.
So:
1. Take time to build up a good network of critiquers.
- This often means taking time to critique their work. Critiquing other people’s work in itself is a fantastic exercise and teaches you an enormous amount about why things don’t work. It’s all very well reading an excellent book, but it’ll potentially help you less than reading an unpolished work with some good bits. Bad examples are easier to decipher than the myriad complexities of good examples.
- You need varied feedback to balance things out. There is no Universal Reader. But if 8 out of 10 say one thing you’ll at least know that (right or wrong) that’s a majority view.
- You’ll get to know your critiquer’s individual style. Some might find plots hard to follow, some might hate romance, some might like action scenes best. This doesn’t mean the plots are really hard to follow or that anything other than action should be cut – but their response might seem as if that’s what they’re saying.
2. Don’t think so highly of your writing as to imagine it can’t always be improved.
2. Thank your critiquer for their feedback. it takes time and effort to give feedback, even if it isn’t constructive. There’s almost always something to be gained from even the most abrasive rudeness, if only that something in there rubbed this person up badly the wrong way… which may be a good or bad thing.
3. Be pigheaded enough to stick to your guns when it’s something you think is essential. There’s no point in re-writing your work through the eyes of others. Accept what you’re happy to, reject the rest. The learning experience will come out in future works.