{"id":90,"date":"2011-10-29T15:25:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-29T20:25:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jackcampbelljr.wordpress.com\/?p=90"},"modified":"2011-10-29T15:25:04","modified_gmt":"2011-10-29T20:25:04","slug":"the-need-for-criticism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/2011\/10\/29\/the-need-for-criticism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Need for Criticism"},"content":{"rendered":"

To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. – Elbert Hubbard<\/em><\/p>\n

There are a few things that every writer should have.\u00a0 When you get down to it, that is a pretty substantial comment.\u00a0 Writing is largely individual and like many arts, is at least partially subjective.\u00a0 That being said, there are things we should all have in common.<\/p>\n

First off is a copy of Strunk and White’s Elements of Style<\/em>.\u00a0 If you don’t have it, get it.\u00a0 There are few books that address writing mechanics as efficiently as this one.<\/p>\n

Second is something to write on.<\/p>\n

Third is a good attention span.\u00a0 Writing is hard and takes up lots of time.\u00a0 Even when you aren’t writing, that attention span will allow you to go about the business of collecting.\u00a0 A writer is a sponge that soaks up the world around him.\u00a0 Phrases that are interesting, mannerisms, appearances, settings.\u00a0 Everything is stored for later use.<\/p>\n

The fourth, is arguably the most important, and that is thick skin towards criticism.\u00a0 Do not shun criticism, welcome it.\u00a0 Nothing will make you a better writer than criticism.\u00a0 You are too close to your own writing.\u00a0 You infer things from its sentences that cannot be inferred.\u00a0 You understand things that cannot be understood.\u00a0 Things make sense that shouldn’t because your brain fills in the gaps.\u00a0 You need other people to tear apart your stuff.<\/p>\n

Does it hurt?\u00a0 Of course it does.\u00a0 It hurts no less than a stranger saying your children are ugly.\u00a0 But it is important.\u00a0 You are going to get rejections.\u00a0 You are going to get criticized.\u00a0 With luck, you will be judged by thousands of people.\u00a0 Now is the time to get used to it.\u00a0 Lack of criticism in writing is lack of movement forward.<\/p>\n

I was reminded this just recently after reading a self-published first novel by a writer new to fiction.\u00a0 I was excited to read the book because of several glowing reviews on Amazon calling it the next big thing.\u00a0 Unfortunately, it wasn’t.\u00a0 The book wasn’t bad, by any means.\u00a0 The concept was good, but the writing had a lot of technical issues and the story wasn’t consistent.\u00a0 This type of thing can only be caught by having your work read ahead of time by people who are willing to hurt your feelings and who worry about more than just your spelling.<\/p>\n

Inconsistency to the rules of your story world cannot be allowed.\u00a0 Your characters must be true to themselves.\u00a0 Inefficient sentence structure is an easy fix.\u00a0 None of those things are necessary, nor should they make it to a final draft.\u00a0 Unfortunately, if you don’t know better, and no one is willing to tell you, how would you know?\u00a0 All of the five-star reviews are doing nothing for this writer, especially whereas the book is to be the first of a series.\u00a0 This is one of the dangers of self-publishing.\u00a0 If you don’t have the appropriate support group to read your work, you risk putting out bad fiction.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, my own review of this book was not appreciated.\u00a0 So it goes.\u00a0 I feel bad for the writer.\u00a0 I don’t feel bad that I said the writing was loose and needed an experienced editor or novelist to guide the writer’s next endeavor.\u00a0 I feel bad that the writer may not learn anything from it.<\/p>\n

I’ve learned so much from those who have criticized my writing.\u00a0 I don’t mean insulted, but genuinely said what was wrong with it.\u00a0 I recently wrote a first draft that didn’t work.\u00a0 I knew it didn’t work and showed it to someone.\u00a0 They tore it apart.\u00a0 The re-write resulted in a focused, tighter piece that worked much better.\u00a0 If I had not had someone who was willing to be critical, the project could have been lost.\u00a0 Instead, I was able to submit it to an anthology.<\/p>\n

Embrace other writers who are willing to be critical of you.\u00a0 Love them.\u00a0 If you don’t agree with what they say, don’t use it.\u00a0 But never downplay their usefulness.\u00a0 It might be the most important thing in your development as a writer.<\/p>\n

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To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing. – Elbert Hubbard There are a few things that every writer should have.\u00a0 When you get down to it, that is a pretty substantial comment.\u00a0 Writing is largely individual and like many arts, is at least partially subjective.\u00a0 That being said, there are things we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[97,98,381,418,420],"class_list":["post-90","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-criticism","tag-critics","tag-thick-skin","tag-writing","tag-writing-groups"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jackcampbelljr.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}