It’s been an interesting week, squiders.
(And a tiring one. I’ve got a cold and so I haven’t been able to sleep much. Part of me wants to go take a nap, but it’s not like I’m going to be able to breathe any better right now.)
Both my in-person critique group and the critique marathon got Chapter 13 this week, and to say there is a range of responses would be an understatement. At times like these, it’s good to remind myself how to deal with receiving critiques, especially ones that don’t agree with each other.
Betas and critique partners are great, and I try to always have at least one person read anything I write before I do something with it. But they are people, with their own likes and biases, and what one says isn’t necessarily the best thing for your story.
So I have a few basic rules. Or thought processes, I guess.
Rule 1: Did more than one person point this out?
If multiple people are pointing out the same thing, it’s probably a problem. (Unless they’re all saying “I really like this part!”) I always take an extra long look at something that multiple people bring up, and in almost all cases, something needs to be changed.
(Sometimes it just needs to be re-worded, though. Those are the best.)
Actually, this is my favorite sort of commentary. Consensus is good. Consensus is easy to fix (relatively).
It’s when everyone has differing opinions, sometimes even opposite problems, that you run into harder problems.
Rule 2: Consider all commentary equally
In cases where only one person has pointed something out, or where you only have one reader in general, I still feel like you have to give that person’s point full consideration. Sometimes there’s the inclination to discount something because, say, you had five people read this and only one pointed it out, so obviously the problem is with that person. They read something wrong, or they misunderstood, or something.
And sometimes that’s true! And certainly you can’t fix everything for everyone.
But sometimes that one person did find something that everyone else missed, or perhaps they’ve come up with a better way to do something, something that will be more coherent in the long run.
And I do try to minimize the amount of confusion.
So I do sit with each person’s commentary, and try to see the story how they saw it, and then I decide if I agree with their point or not. Or, in extreme cases, I go and find someone else to read that section and see what that person says, and if anything they say lines up with the commentary the first person had.
Or you can go directly to the person and ask for clarification, or bounce potential fixes off of them.
Right now, I have two spots brought up by one of my in-person people that I’m waiting to see if the critique marathon people bring up (I haven’t looked at the line by line commentary yet, only the overall commentary), and one of the critique marathon people has a problem that didn’t bother my in-person people at all.
(There’s also a spot that all my in-person people brought up, so I’m interested to see if the critique marathon people also find it. I did run through the chapter between the in-person and marathon and make some changes, but I left this one alone out of curiosity. I’ll give it a second look when I go back through the chapter with the marathon commentary.)
Rule 3: Don’t take anything personally
It can be tempting, especially if you get a heap of negative feedback, to mope around and feel sorry for oneself and bemoan your writing skills and all that. (Or I do, anyway.) This is silly and you mustn’t dwell on it for too long. Critique partners do tend to dwell on the negative; they want to help you find problems so you can fix them and make the story better. But it’s not a judgment on you or even your writing, really. So don’t let it get to you, even if you are sick and haven’t slept in three days.
I find sometimes getting to work fixing the comments (or making decisions about the comments) can help you move past this stage.
(Some people are just mean, though. Don’t work with those people anyway, they suck.)
Anyway, fixing is for tomorrow, unless I get sicker, and then Doctor Who binging is for tomorrow and fixing is for Saturday.
Thoughts on critique commentary, squiders? Tips or tricks you swear by?
