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How to Take Criticism
Apr. 22nd, 2013 03:17 pmOne of the rewarding things about leaving reviews is the correspondence I get into with some of the authors. It occurs to me I've exchanged useful writing tips through these private messages, so I've decided to flesh out some of the advice I gave and make them available to those who don't feel like hacking into my FanFiction.Net private messages. I'll be naming names and linking fics in this post on the theory that fanfic writers are generally positive about exposure, but if you don't want to be linked tell me and I'll take the link down.
First off, I'll talk about that dark side of the giddy joy of writing: Critical comments and how to respond to them. I'm going by the assumption that you're interested in improving the craft of writing, so if your goal is solely to have fun and share some squee this post probably isn't useful. In fact I don't think you'll get much mileage out of any post about writing advice if your goal isn't to improve, and I say God bless you. There are so many better things to spend time on than staring at a computer screen figuring out arrangements of words. For the rest of you, here are words that are hopefully of some value:
( Though really, by my own terms I'm preaching to the choir... )
Honest criticism will help you in the goal of improving your writing, and does not mean you are a) stupid, b) worthless, or c) will never write well. If you really can't handle it, it's best to stop pretending that your goal is to improve: You want to be told that you're good writer, which is in not in any way the same thing as writing well.
Not wanting to improve your writing is, as I have said, a valid choice to make. All that's important is to be honest about your choice, whichever it is. If you really do want to improve, you have to be able to take criticism and I hope this article has been of some little help to you.
First off, I'll talk about that dark side of the giddy joy of writing: Critical comments and how to respond to them. I'm going by the assumption that you're interested in improving the craft of writing, so if your goal is solely to have fun and share some squee this post probably isn't useful. In fact I don't think you'll get much mileage out of any post about writing advice if your goal isn't to improve, and I say God bless you. There are so many better things to spend time on than staring at a computer screen figuring out arrangements of words. For the rest of you, here are words that are hopefully of some value:
( Though really, by my own terms I'm preaching to the choir... )
Honest criticism will help you in the goal of improving your writing, and does not mean you are a) stupid, b) worthless, or c) will never write well. If you really can't handle it, it's best to stop pretending that your goal is to improve: You want to be told that you're good writer, which is in not in any way the same thing as writing well.
Not wanting to improve your writing is, as I have said, a valid choice to make. All that's important is to be honest about your choice, whichever it is. If you really do want to improve, you have to be able to take criticism and I hope this article has been of some little help to you.
