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Post by yourbookwhisperer on May 20, 2020 6:25:31 GMT -6
You cannot avoid being criticised. The moment you post something, or present your work to someone, you open yourself to a possible criticism. But you know what? It can be helpful many times. And it may hurt, but it is not the end of the world. For a few hints how to deal with this unpleasant writing issue, read here  mybookwhisperer.org/2020/03/30/dealing-with-criticism/ |
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Post by Tomspy77 on May 20, 2020 9:33:06 GMT -6
You cannot avoid being criticised. The moment you post something, or present your work to someone, you open yourself to a possible criticism. But you know what? It can be helpful many times. And it may hurt, but it is not the end of the world. For a few hints how to deal with this unpleasant writing issue, read here mybookwhisperer.org/2020/03/30/dealing-with-criticism/Great stuff there and one thing I think is important is having a thick skin, especially online. Part of the reason both this and the Facebook page exist is that I was so tired of the arguing and the egos from writers that made simple errors or just got an opinion and exploded over it. If your ego cannot take the hard truths and critiques, you should not be a writer. I like how you mention 'walking away' if the criticism starts to get to you, a great rule of thumb if you're getting bogged down in any writing project in my experience. Praise, suggestions, or a bad review, I always feel to its important to thank people who read your work, they are taking their time and spending it on what you created, we all should at least be grateful they did so at all. |
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Post by Tomspy77 on May 20, 2020 14:00:47 GMT -6
Criticism is a very problematic issue. It is needed. Especially when working on the drafts. But one really needs to learn to distinguish between the useful criticism and ego-boosting. I hate it when someone is "criticizing" somebody's hard work in a rude way just to prove he or she is superior. On the other hand, many authors are not able to take the justified criticism. I will mention some examples from my personal experience, I got really detailed feedback full of issues that needed fixing. It was a long list and it was really heartbreaking in the first moment. But the person was not rude, she explained why she thought these needed fixing and provided several examples how I could do it. I used all of her advice. She wanted to help and she did. Her reasoning was logical. Then I found other similar people. There was a point when I swapped works with a guy with expertise in a field my main character should be an expert in. And I am not  so all what is in the manuscript was just my google research and I was aware it could be much much better. I got really scared when I learned who this new critique partner is and I was sure his feedback would be hell. It wasn't. He was very helpful and supportive and helped me change a lot. Now the negative: one beta sent me a feedback that consisted of insults and a long list of words that I should not be using because it surely wasn't in English in my chosen time period. The feedback was a few pages long. Just for the peace of my mind I checked every single suggested word in the etymological dictionary. There wasn't a single one that wouldn't be in use a few centuries before my time period. Once I made a mistake and when I was doing another swap I really loved the book I was critiquing and so I worked on it a lot. I returned it back when the critique partner was in the first third of my manuscript. Once she got her book, she never responded back. And so on... So, writing, as any activity can be harsh when take seriously. And we need to go on |
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Post by yourbookwhisperer on May 20, 2020 14:03:51 GMT -6
Criticism is a very problematic issue. It is needed. Especially when working on the drafts. But one really needs to learn to distinguish between the useful criticism and ego-boosting. I hate it when someone is "criticizing" somebody's hard work in a rude way just to prove he or she is superior. On the other hand, many authors are not able to take the justified criticism. I will mention some examples from my personal experience, I got really detailed feedback full of issues that needed fixing. It was a long list and it was really heartbreaking in the first moment. But the person was not rude, she explained why she thought these needed fixing and provided several examples how I could do it. I used all of her advice. She wanted to help and she did. Her reasoning was logical. Then I found other similar people. There was a point when I swapped works with a guy with expertise in a field my main character should be an expert in. And I am not so all what is in the manuscript was just my google research and I was aware it could be much much better. I got really scared when I learned who this new critique partner is and I was sure his feedback would be hell. It wasn't. He was very helpful and supportive and helped me change a lot. Now the negative: one beta sent me a feedback that consisted of insults and a long list of words that I should not be using because it surely wasn't in English in my chosen time period. The feedback was a few pages long. Just for the peace of my mind I checked every single suggested word in the etymological dictionary. There wasn't a single one that wouldn't be in use a few centuries before my time period. Once I made a mistake and when I was doing another swap I really loved the book I was critiquing and so I worked on it a lot. I returned it back when the critique partner was in the first third of my manuscript. Once she got her book, she never responded back. And so on... So, writing, as any activity can be harsh when take seriously. And we need to go on Sorry, did not notice I wasn't logged in. I have no idea how this thing works |
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Post by Tomspy77 on May 21, 2020 2:45:28 GMT -6
No worries you just as said used the quick reply feature rather than logging in, no problem. I agree it is needed and those are great examples of just how important it is, indeed it is how we learn and perfect our craft...in anything, not just writing. Long ago I once was writing a man named Andrew Pixley who wrote in a couple magazines and books I read as a kid and it was when I had just started out writing in about 2006 or so and I wrote him using a bunch of abbreviations and I guess what could be considered 'text/DM/PM speech,' he told me that as an aspiring writer EVERYTHING I wrote should be as correct as possible from a shopping list to a novel. I took that on board and many other things along the way and it helped immensely...although as said not all take this kind of thing with a good nature. |
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so all what is in the manuscript was just my google research and I was aware it could be much much better. I got really scared when I learned who this new critique partner is and I was sure his feedback would be hell. It wasn't. He was very helpful and supportive and helped me change a lot.