In yesterday’s post, I shared some of my thoughts on what makes for good critiquing when you are the one giving the critique. Today I am going to share my thoughts on how to be good at taking a critique.
Receiving a critique is a skill set just as giving a critique is one. In order to get the most out of a critique and have the best chance for improvement as a writer, I think that there are a few simple things to keep in mind. These suggestions are primarily based for session where you need to sit there and listen to one or more people give you their feedback verbally, but many of the concepts apply to written critiques as well.
1) Be Quiet. There are several good reasons to remain as silent as a church mouse. Foremost it is polite to the person who has the floor have their say. If you derail their train of thought you may miss valuable insights that they had to share but instead were diverted to some other topic. Also, the most often impulse to speak comes from a desire to explain a point that the reader misunderstood or defend a critique. In both instances, you should refrain from any comment. No honest critique can be wrong. If someone gets something out of the piece that seems to you 180 degrees out, you should not seek to correct them but instead you should try to understand why they came away with that impression. If more than one person has that impression you really need to dig into the piece and figure why. you can’t do that if you are explaining or debating the point. Once you fall into defending the point or piece you become more resistant to the critique.
2) Understand Biases. Every person in the world has a set of filters that they use to view reality. Some are optimistic, some of pessimistic, some overly dark and others filled with rainbows and unicorns. These filters will impact on how that person views your work. This doesn’t make them wrong. It is what the work is to them. You need to try to work out how much is their bias and how much is your prose. There’s no simple test, no litmus paper you can apply, but with time and practice you can get better as understanding the filters and then even using them to try to achieve literary slight of hands.
3) Don’t rewrite to all critiques. If you are part of a group when you get your feedback it may be all over the place. One person may find the character charming while another thinks the character is an ass. Some may find you set-up credible and others may be unable to suspend their disbelief. If you try to re-write to make everyone happy your piece will become a pile of mush, bland and without a voice. When you do your revisions keep in mind the points that felt right to you and search out your own solutions to the issues. Points that seemed far afield, ignore. Again, with time and practice you’ll get better of discovering the little inner voice that can point you towards the critiques that are on target. the problem is that little voice is often shouted down by the much louder writer’s ego. That voice you need to ignore during this process.
