How to Deal with Writing Criticism

Criticism is one of the hardest things a writer may have to face other than starting a blank page. 

However, criticism and advice are one of the things that an author needs to help them with their craft. We're sometimes too close to our stories to look at them objectively. We spend weeks, months, and sometimes years living with these stories and characters in our heads until they become a part of us or something akin to our children. 

You would never let a stranger sit there and speak badly about your child to your face, but as a writer, you're going to learn to have to. People are going to come from every direction and give you advice about your story, you don't have to go right away to change your story based on everybody's advice, but you should still consider being open to receiving it.

Decide if the source of criticism is a valuable asset to your writing. 

I write horror and psychological thriller fiction.

My mother hates horror and psychological thriller fiction. 

She'll try to support me by reading some of my work, but she'll always give me the same criticism. "This is too dark." "Does there have to be so many swears?" "Can't you write a nice story like the one I like to read?" 

While her criticism is appreciated, there's no true value in it to me as a writer.

However, if a close friend of mine, who reads nothing but horror fiction, was to give me the criticism that the work is so gory that the plot becomes lost in the violence, then I may take his suggestion to heart and tone down some of the violence to better sever the story. 

If a painter is giving you advice on how to do brain surgery doesn't mean you have to listen to it.

Avoid Explosions and Lower your Defenses 

Those who are offering you criticism aren't doing so to hurt you, most of the time they are truly trying to help you better your work. 

If you put up a wall and brush away everything they say just because you don't want to hear it then you may be losing insight into advice that might be what your story needs to take off. 

If you explode into an angry tirade every time someone tries to offer you criticism you're going to be hard-pressed to find someone that wants to work with you, or you'll end up with someone who tells you what you want to hear instead of what you need to hear just so they aren't on the receiving end of your anger. 

Listen to the criticism you're given, take notes, and when you have a clear and calm head, review it. Just because you don't want to hear it doesn't mean it isn't true. 

This also goes for a reviewer giving you the criticism that they got confused or didn't understand something that happened in your work. THIS CRITICISM IS IMPORTANT TO KEEP IN MIND.

As the writer, you live, eat, and breathe this story. You know the world you created like the back of your hand, but then you look and ask yourself, "when did that freckle get there?" You may know how you got your characters from point A to point B, but that doesn't mean you wrote all of it down.

Have you seen Aquaman (2018)? There's a scene where they travel to the Sahara Desert and have to jump out of a plane and travel to a lost city below the desert. Then after retrieving the item they need… suddenly they are in Sicily without any explanation on how they got out of the lost city, or out of the desert itself. 

Sometimes even though a plot hole is glaringly obvious it somehow made it past dozens of people before making it to the big screen. 

It's safe to say that a plot hole might be in your book and you need the criticism and questions of an outsider to see it.

Ask Questions 

Just because someone is giving criticism doesn't mean you aren't allowed to ask them questions such as how they came to their conclusions or what suggestions they have for you to amend the problems they found.

Criticism should be a discussion, you're not a dartboard for them to just fling their advice at and walk away. Be calm about it, but have them explain their reasoning to you so that you can see where you may need to make improvements. 

Don't Quit

No matter what criticism someone gives you, never let it affect you enough that you throw in the towel on writing forever. 

If I stopped writing the very first time someone told me that I couldn't, I wouldn't have written a single story past middle school. 

Unfortunately, we live in a world where vitriol comes pouring out of some easier than praise. It's not that everyone should be praising your work no matter how bad it is, but they should remember that you are a person with a heart, soul, and strong attachment to the work that they are intent on ripping to shreds without the decency to hand you a roll of tape to put it back together. 

Don't take any criticism as a personal attack on you and your skills instead use it all as an opportunity to grow what you already have. 

Do. Not. Give. Up.

If they expect you to fail prove them wrong.

You may fall, but you will brush the dirt off your knees and try again. 

It's how you learned to walk and it will get you through anything else life will try to push your way.

Keep writing.

No matter what there will always be someone in your corner praising every word you are able to put down on the page. 

If that person is only me, then so be it.

I'm proud of you and all that you write.

With love, 

B.K.

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