Kal’s Worst Writing Advice Part 10: Criticism

We are our own worst critics, except when we’re not.

I hear this one often enough from new authors and it drives me absolutely crazy. “My writer group had these changes I needed to make,” or “an editor told me I needed to change this plot point” or any number of similar things. Most of them boil down to an author making serious, sometimes massive changes to their (often) work in progress.

Writing, especially being productive in writing, requires a balance of the right mindset, emotions, thoughts, ideas, creative drive, and most importantly: motivation. I have seen many, many authors bog down in making changes to their work in progress and stall out, or when working on a series, get hung up on the sequels due to criticism or reception of previous books.

Here’s the thing, good, constructive criticism can help you improve your writing craft, and we absolutely want to do that. What we don’t want to do is make changes to our vision of the book based upon the armrest generals of the world.

Writing is often like being in the trenches, you are trying to make something work, trying to get something to stick, trying to push forward when, at times, it seems there is an entire army opposing you.

Just like in those situations, there are those who did not take up arms who will be the first to criticize those on the front lines. It is the nature of people to find flaws in what they see. Often, especially by those who are themselves unsuccessful, they’ll try to tear down someone with better perceived success than themselves.

I once was in a writing group, almost fifteen years ago, where one person showed up each week without a manuscript, but she would critique everyone else. Her comments seemed relatively helpful, often poking at things that made sense. Only, after looking back, I realized that she was sabotaging the other writers, often sending us back to change things in earlier chapters, sometimes referencing changes from previous weeks and saying we hadn’t done them right.

Whether she did it intentionally or not, it undermined the confidence of those other writers and it set people back. Instead of working towards completing new chapters, many of those writers would go back and edit and change the earlier chapters, requiring more edits and changes throughout their works in progress.

Similarly, there are some really big name authors who, taking the criticism of readers to heart, have changed some of their plots and characters rather profoundly. In some cases, authors have taken down their novels and even their websites.

Look, frankly, having readers is important. Writing a good, solid book is important. Having the self-respect to say, “This is the story I want to write” is even more important.

Get the book written, write it *your* way and then worry about what people think. I know many, many authors who don’t let *anyone* read any of it, who don’t talk to anyone about the plot, characters, or structure, until it is done. Because, and I’m speaking from personal experience here, having a trusted reader or friend look at the work in progress and go “I don’t get it” can be absolutely devastating for a writer.

Get the book done. Write it how you want it. Don’t spend days, weeks, months, or years rewriting your story how someone else wants it. Write it and finish it. By all means, from that point, take valid constructive criticism and feedback, but if someone doesn’t get your story, if they want to change profound things about it, then thank them politely for their feedback and ignore it.

Remember at the end of the day, this is your story, you own it. Also, similar to sculptures, one moment it is a lump of rock or clay and the next it is something beautiful. Allow your story to be told the way you want it, the way you envision it.

There are authors I know who send chapters and scenes to their alpha readers and even their editors as they go along. I’ve been in positions before where I needed to discuss scenes and chapters to work through what I wanted to have happen. Sometimes you need that feedback… or sometimes you just need to work through things out loud.

Take what you need, disregard what you don’t. How can you tell the difference? If you have to make changes and go back… well, odds are, you don’t need it right then. Sometimes, sure you need to do a big rewrite, where the rest of the book just doesn’t work… but often enough you can do that after you have finished the whole novel.

And if it is changes in a sequel or someone dissatisfied with the first one, things that someone wants you to add to the sequels… why? If it is something you want to do anyway, absolutely. But if it doesn’t make sense to you, if you want nothing to do with it, disregard and move on.

Don’t let yourself be pecked apart by the doubts of those who aren’t in your shoes. Write what you want to write, and as I have said many, many times at this point: Finish your novel.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go work on the story that my friend told me he didn’t get.