Don't Criticize Me!

To critique or not to critique?

Learning to critique is an important part of being a writer if you ever intend on engaging in a community to improve your own work.

By critiquing, you help another better their work, and by receiving critiques, you can better your own.

Essentially, you're putting your head together with another--you may be good at picking out grammar errors and they may be good at pointing out characterization issues, so together, you've aced both!

I enjoy critiquing and the benefits of criticism. I mostly am good at pointing out grammar but also at considering the author's intentions before making a comment. I'm always looking for ways to more effectively word a scene.

Welcome to the Dark Side

But critiques also have a "dark side" I feel like isn't talked about much. It's common sense that you can ignore comments you don't agree with or find useful, but there's a little more danger than just that.

Confidence

The downside of critiques is that if you lack confidence or the ability to empathize (see where the critique is coming from), your confidence in your work can be shot. You also have to be able to understand when a critic has genuinely misjudged your work because of genre/topic biases or when they’ve made a reading mistake. If you can’t, in terms of comments that you don’t immediately see the benefit of, you won’t be able to tell which comments should be disregarded.

To overcome this:

1. Know your work and your audience. Before sending off your manuscript, be sure you understand your world and your characters and have an idea of what you are unsure about. Additionally, understand your audience and whether your critics fit into that subset. If not, be aware of how they differ from that subset.
2. When reading a comment, decide if you agree or disagree. If you disagree, ask yourself why. If the critic highlights a sentence or paragraph they didn't understand, compare it to other critiques. What meaning were you trying to portray and why do you think the critic missed it? Could you improve clarity or did the critic somehow miss the previous sentence? (It happens.)
3. And no matter what, keep on writing. It's envitable that a certain comment might make you feel down, or that a large edit may have to be made, but that doesn't mean your work was bad. Editing is a part of the process that makes your work all the more valuable, so if critiquing helps you along that step, continue!
4. Take care of yourself and don't feel obligated to put up with the process. If you ever feel like you can't take critiques, take a break. I frequently see this negatively worded as if something's wrong with you if you can't take them. If it's not a pride issue, it could be a confidence issue, and that is not your fault. We seem to forget that harsh yet constructive critiques can seem all the more harsh to a writer when the comment is inapplicable to what the writer desires. We all have different sensitivities.

Research

Research is very important, as well. I’ve received comments on my current novel that, had I not addressed the same questions myself earlier with intense research, I would have taken as affirmations of my doubts.

One good example is contractions in narration.

In the case of the contractions, I wondered if they were okay to use because consistency becomes a problem. I found plenty of articles that said “why not” and none that say no. (I hope my critics don’t mind me using this example!) It wasn’t until after I received a comment on it that I cracked open a book. The first thing I saw was contractions in the narrative, and they looked pretty natural.

Research complete.

Now, think about a fiction book—you probably wouldn’t notice certain things because you’re enjoying the story, but don’t you think a lot of do-not’s, had-not’s, is-not’s in the character’s mind would pull you from the story? Classics, with their formal language, don't use contractions. I'm also sure you were very aware of the tone created by the lack of contractions.

Really, I don’t understand why we think contractions shouldn’t be in the narrative considering most fiction books we pick up have them. Rules and conventions of formality stick hard! This is another reason why it's important to research any changes you're unsure of, but to also research ones you agree with--there's always a possibility your way and the suggested way were both right and it's always helpful to know.

Bias in Differing Experiences

I don’t claim to be an expert on grammar, characterization, and the works because when I read a published work, I read for enjoyment, not critique. I think it’s also important to point out bias in terms of being told a manuscript is already published and the work of a “professional author” versus the first or second draft of a new writer. Similar studies have been done on being told an author is Black versus White, for example. I’m pretty sure that a fancy metaphor in the published book would receive great reviews (take The Last Unicorn for instance, which I haven’t read), while, in the first/second draft critique, it would receive suggestions that it be changed because it’s too unconventional.

Being an African-American author, my critics tend to be White. Which isn't a problem until they come across some part that explains, for example, black bodies. I've actually been fearful of describing black bodies the way White authors describe White bodies because I know most White readers will be turned off by it. But I had to realize censoring myself that way would be catering to racism and self-hatred. I've noticed more and more the strange ways the beauty of White characters are detailed in most books, but when I describe the simplest feature of my Black characters, it's always pointed out as strange, which is because such descriptions are sadly rare.

Representation is important.

Overanalysis Spoils Pleasure

Critique is not something I could do for an extended period. I haven't read much recently and am already struggling with heightened awareness to certain themes in novels (mostly the emphasis on a lack of diversity and the occasional misrepresentation of God). It's moreso receiving critiques that heightens my awareness than giving critiques, and this awareness is a double-edged sword.

I have an immediate example of why long-term critique would further cripple my ability to enjoy novels. I used to be able to read any old fiction piece I picked up, but not anymore. (I'm only using the novel below as an example and stating a brief opinion about the work. Please do not take this as judgment of the novel as I did not read it in its entirety.)

I got a 50 cent novel from the library yesterday and the third sentence was:

He'd just been keeping himself busy while awaiting the arrival of a delegation of peacekeepers from several superpowers who would be meeting with the pope that morning, but like several other members of the press and tourists who'd been ignoring the altercation or losing patience with it, he was becoming concerned.

- The Reincarnationist by MJ Rose

The sentence doesn't seem so long on screen, but it instantly stomped on my will to read the book, along with a few other less immediate factors.

My point is instead of enjoying the story, I now notice small details that fracture my reading. This could just be me, but it does seem like something that would happen to anyone. I mentioned how the framing of a manuscript being professional vs. first-time may bias critique; I used to take pleasure at laughing at the one typo in a published novel, but I do not want to find sentences odd that I normally would not.

When we are in critique mode, we over-analyze things. Also, unique structures (metaphors, sentences) will almost always be eliminated. At first, over-analysis may not be a problem, but it is a learned behavior--you heighten your senses as you stay longer in an environment where you're supposed to point out things. So your brain thinks "The more things the better, right?"

I am in no way ragging on critiquing. As I said in the beginning, it is a very valuable process that I enjoy. It's just that we point out the benefits so much I didn't want to be another avoiding the cons of the process. When you are aware of these things, the process will only be more valuable for you, because if you shield against the negative, you only get the positive.

Another blog prompt brought to us by Wriye.