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.

Since 2010, I have been a member of the Mysterious Galaxy Writers’ Support Group. We meet twice a month, read pages aloud to the group and provide instant feedback and critique. We also do longer pieces at home and share the line edits with the authors. If you want to write and you are not a member of a writers’ group I would advise joining and if there isn’t one in your area there are many on-line and you can even found one.

Over the years, I have picked up a few thoughts on critiques and today I will share some in hopes that someone might find them of value. This post will be about giving critiques, perhaps there will a part 1 about receiving them but frankly giving is far more important to your growth as a writer than getting.

These are not hard fast rules, but rather the guidelines I think work best. As with cars, your mileage may vary.

1) Be Honest. No honest critique can be wrong. It is the impression and reaction that the piece generated in the reader. This is not mathematics where there are right and wrong answers. Writing is about what works and what doesn’t work. While there general rules for what works, show don’t tell, active vs passive, these can and are broken to good effect. Now, it is difficult to break them without understanding why they are there, but if the break works or does not work for you, then it didn’t and you should say so.

2) Be Polite.  There are several very good reasons to be polite. It is simply good manners and few people want to associate with the boorish. Also if you are polite the person you are speaking with is more inclined to listen. This benefits them and keeps you from wasting your time. Rude, mean comments are destructive to the person receiving the critique and to the group as a whole. Meetings were such things are tolerated will not reoccur for long.

3) Be Precise. Phrases such as ‘I liked it’ and ‘I didn’t like it’ are generally unhelpful for an author diagnosing a problematic piece. Give examples where the writing didn’t work for you and try to illuminate why it didn’t work.

4) Praise where you can, but be true to rule 1. I like whenever possible to start with what worked for me, and why it worked, then go into what didn’t work for me and why and then sum up with the positive. I find the sandwiching of good and bad helps both come across clear and in a generally receptive manner.

5) Be Wary of re-writing it to your own style and preferences. The work is not your work it is someone else’s. They likely have different ideas about what makes an interesting plot, and engaging characters. The trick here is to focus on the prose and how it serves the story and unless asked for plotting help, avoid changes to the story itself. This will also make it easier to give useful feedback for a genre you don’t read or write.