Criticism and the Writer

by Jewel Leann Williams

Unless you are writing a journal entry, or a secret document you never intend the world to see, you will endure criticism. Anyone who reads your book, poem, short story, or blog entry, will have thoughts about it, whether they express them or not.

Your words will resonate with them--or they won't.

Your characters, the setting, your pacing--all of those things will either engage them, or they won't.

So, why not get some good, solid criticism before you let your words go public, so that you can change those things that need to be corrected, before it's too late?

Well, because asking people whose opinion you value to possibly tell you things they don't like about this thing you've been pouring your soul into, is absolutely frightening, that's why!

Many writers are so terrified to hear that their "baby" is actually really ugly, that they don't ever present to critique groups or beta readers.

What's worse, some writers are so invested in their project that even if they do have beta readers, when those readers outline all the things that are wrong with the book, the writer has a meltdown. Sometimes they go on Facebook to get validation and commiseration, they may discount the criticism, or possibly take it so much to heart that they don't touch the project again.

These things ought not to be. With this in mind, I present the following steps to receiving criticism as a writer (I am talking about the kind of criticism you ASK for: critique groups, beta readers, etc.):

Step 1: Say, "Thank you."   You did, after all, ask for them to read and comment. They sacrificed time to read your project.

Step 2: get out the salt. You will need at least one grain of it to take with each comment.  You have to take into account that everyone has their own pre-established likes, dislikes, and idiosyncrasies that will color their perception of your work.

Step 3: Keep this advice from Neil Gaiman in mind:

When people say "This doesn't work for me," there is always a reason. However, the reason may be completely different than what they think it is. Pay attention to those things that are unsettling to your beta readers, but be aware that their solution is not necessarily the solution.

Step 4: Pray or meditate on it.  I believe that God wants me to use my talents as a writer to help His children.  Because of that, I also believe that He will direct me in the use of my writing, if I ask Him. That may not be your belief, but I promise if you take time to reflect on the things that your beta readers have told you, you can be more mindful of what changes you need to make and which ones are not necessary.

Step 5: Be true to yourself; true to your story.  But don't be afraid to "kill your darlings" if necessary.  IF NECESSARY. You don't have to. Sometimes one reader may not like something that may be perfectly wonderful to another. YOU get the final say.

Step 6: Do it all over again. Make changes, get feedback. Make more changes, get more feedback. Think of it as sanding furniture, or polishing a stone or a car... you refine, refine, refine, with finer grit sandpaper, until you can truly see the gem shining through.

What advice do YOU have for writers dealing with critiques? Post in the comments!

Everyone's Bathroom Has Quirks

Note: I am writing this from my phone, so please be a little compassionate toward my errors. Pretty please?

My family and I are on vacation right now, visiting family and friends in Salt Lake City, Utah. We're having a grand time, and it's nice on the budget to be visiting people we know because we get to stay at their houses.

While we've been doing this, I noticed something. Everyone's house has quirks, weird little things that don't work right or make strange noises or whatever. This is especially noticeable in the bathroom, probably because it's such a private place (so asking for explanations can be awkward) and probably because you really have to use that room at some point.

The thing is, everyone is used to their own bathroom's quirks, so we hardly ever notice them. For example, in my bathroom, we have two toilet seats. One is a smaller version insert into the larger version. It's for our little kids when they're learning to use the toilet, so it's extra small. I'd never thought about it, though, until a friend came out of the bathroom and said, very awkwardly, "Soooo, your toilet seat is kinda small." I realized she used the kiddie seat because it isn't obvious that the other seat is under it! This is something I never thought to mention.

Staying at my sister's house, I've discovered that the pipes to her downstairs bathroom sounds like a moaning ghost when the water is running. This is a sounds she's used to but that surprised me a bit. And at my in-laws house, there's a bathtub that doesn't have a shower, which was so crazily weird to me when I first discovered it. And at a friend's house, the hot water comes out of the sink scorching. Oh, and there's the sink handle at another house that I accidentally pulled off when I turned it! Fortunately, it was broken before I came along. But you get the point -- all houses have quirks, and we get used to our own.

Now what does this all have to do with writing? Okay, originally it had nothing to do with writing. I was just in the shower desperately trying to come up with an MMW post (and also desperately trying to get the water temperature right) when I thought of it.

But then I realized actually it does relate. In our own manuscripts, just like in our own houses, we get used to the weird stuff and the stuff that doesn't work right. We sometimes barely notice it or maybe don't even see it at all! We need beta readers (or whatever you want to call them) to look at our stories with fresh eyes and see what isn't working. They'll notice the jiggly flusher or the creaky tiles when we won't.

And they can't all be our critique partners. Our critique partners have essentially been living in these houses with us, or at least visiting often enough that they too miss the stuff that isn't right. Maybe you had a scene that explained why the character acted a certain way, but then you pulled that scene out. Your critique partners still understand, but your future readers wouldn't get it. Enter the beta reader! They find and help you fix those quirks before they go to your readers.

Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against houses having quirks or unfinished projects. Such is life. But if you're planning on selling your house, you're gonna have to fix a lot of that stuff. To you it may be charming or at least invisible, but to a prospective buyer, it isn't. Same goes for a story. Do you want your readers to "buy" it? Then fix it up.

Multiple Personality Dis... Our Constantly Changing Perspective

By Lacey Gunter

Hey MMWs, if you're anything like me, you have a complicated relationship with your manuscripts. Sometimes when I read one of my manuscripts I think it is awesome. I am sure it will make a great childrens book and I am really excited about trying to get it published.

A couple of months later I will read that same manuscript and think, "Uugh, what did I think was so great about this manuscript? It needs a lot of work" I will be disgusted with it and brain storm about how to fix it, or worse, not want to even to look at it or think about it.

Time will pass and someone will ask me about the same manuscript. I will pull it out to try and fix it and think "Hey, this manuscript is pretty good. Why did I think it was so bad? It was really funny." Then I will get excited about it all over again.

Whether the manuscript is truly good or not is difficult to say. It is also not the topic I want to write about. What interests me is how our perception of our writing and our stories is affected by our current emotional status, our outlook and the experiences were are having at the moment.

When we are grouchy or unhappy with ourselves or our current situation, that affects how we react to and interpret the things that happen to us.  It will also affect how we view our writing or our stories. Likewise when we are happy, excited, worried, whatever.

I am sure that this information comes as no surprise to any of you. But how often do we take this into consideration when we are getting feedback on our work from critique partners and reviewers? No matter how good our story or writing is, we should expect that some of that feedback we get will be negative; if for no other reason that the fact that the people who are looking at our work are human and will have good days and bad days that color the way they see and interpret the world.

So think about that the next time your get a critique or review that totally rips apart everything you have done. Stop, take a breath, calm down, go to sleep, and wake up and look at it from a new perspective. It is constantly changing.

To write, or...crochet?

By: Kristi Hartman

I started the beginning of the month with a goal to sort of do Nanowrimo.  I already had about 75 pages of my novel done, but was going to use November as a jump start to hopefully get the book complete.  For awhile, I was doing really well.  I was setting aside a specific time each night to write, and had a word count I was shooting for and meeting every day.
Then, I started to slip back into my old habits.  The writing was becoming more difficult as I progressed in my story, and I was starting to question my direction of the storyline.  I started asking myself questions like,
"Where is my character going in this scene?  What is she doing there?  Why?  What is the point?"
And mostly,

"What is the point at all?!"

I guess to distract myself from my lack of writing, or my weird little funk I was in, I decided to start working on a crochet project I had stashed away in the corner of my family room.  The yarn was new and ready to go, the crochet hook, unused and waiting.  I pulled out the stuff, shrugged my shoulders, and thought, "how hard could this be?"  I had crocheted in the past, but only doing edging patterns on baby blankets. Never a complete project with just some yarn and a hook.
I watched a YouTube video about getting started, and with mounds of confidence, got to work.
All seemed to be going well for awhile, until it was curling and was starting to resemble a fan more than a rectangle.  After some google searching, I realized I was crocheting too tight. Apparently there is this thing called tension.  ;)  I sighed, and started pulling, unraveling all those hours of work.
Then, I forced myself to stop doing it so tightly and started over again.  After awhile, I was feeling confidant, and the yarn was starting to resemble something other than a ball of yarn.  I worked on it for a couple of nights, while my computer still sat, unused.  I had started to get fairly far along when I looked into my bag and noticed my yarn supply was smaller than it should have been.  If I kept going at the rate I was, I was going to make a rather long and skinny dish towel instead of a throw blanket. I went back to the website I had originally seen the pattern from and did some research.  I was crocheting the wrong blanket.  I was mixing up two different patterns.  Fabulous.
At this point, I was so determined to get it right, I gritted my teeth, and started pulling my blanket apart again.  Which, unfortunately, was not going to be the last time.  After two more failed attempts at counting wrong and ending up with a crooked blanket again, I had now restarted this 'simple' little distraction project of mine FOUR times.

So why the story of my mediocre crocheting experience?  Well, it got me thinking.  Why was I so dedicated to getting that dang blanket right, when the second my writing started to get difficult, I bailed?
I asked myself what I could learn from this whole process, and it was of course obvious.
Don't give up on your writing when it gets difficult.  And it will.  Like anything that is of worth or value, it takes time to learn and perfect, and sometimes starting over 4 (or more) times is the only way to learn.
Sure, the blanket will be nice to cuddle with on chilly nights, or when my Mom friends come over and I can pretend I'm so domestic and craft blankets from almost nothing, but the satisfaction of having my dream of a finished novel in my hands is so much more worthwhile.

Who knows, maybe someday I can read my published YA fiction novel while cuddling with my finally finished crocheted blanket.