A Conflict of Critiques

Lulu Oberkotter  
One critter says Yea, another says Nay. Now what are you supposed to do with that kind of advice?

*Disclaimer: While I give paraphrased and reframed examples of comments I’ve gotten on my stories, none of my critters are at risk of being singled out—I always delete my work after it's been through the queues.

Every Critique Circle member has been there. You get a notification about a new critique on your story, and a little bubble forms in your belly filled with hope, excitement, fear, anxiety—a real Schrodinger's Cat scenario. You click the icon and find yourself awash in glowing praise about your genius, your wordsmithing, your unexpected twists, your clever phrasing and interesting characters. That bubble in your belly swells into a star-spangled hot air balloon on a clear July morning, and you’re floating on cloud nine.

Hey, look! Another crit!

Still light-headed from your sky-high ego trip, you eagerly delve into this new wave of insight, anticipating another fresh gust of wind for your sails, or some smoke blown up your…

Oh.

A needle is cruelly thrust into your bubble of joy. You’re not brilliant after all. That plot twist was just a gimmicky “gotcha” moment. Also, what’s with your main character’s stupid name? And why would you use a word like simmer when you should have said seethe? More importantly, how dare you describe a character experiencing a “gut feeling?” The word “gut” is abhorrent and vulgar and totally unnecessary! Gross! Story ruined!

“Thanks for your helpful insight. I will certainly consider your suggestions.” Even as you type out the obligatory Thank You note, that little bubble in your belly simmers. Or seethes. Whatever.

So what is a writer to do with contrasting critiques? Who is right? The friend who made you feel so giddy you were about to float off your chair, or the foe who cruelly yanked you back to earth?

Honestly? It’s probably some of both.

On a good week, crits seem to range from useless praise with little insight to pointless criticism from someone who took offense to my use of a word they had to Google. But there are often dense, meaty crits in between these two extremes which help me take my work to the next level. Though each critter comes from their own perspective, likes things others hated, hates things others liked, patterns often emerge that echo in a resounding consensus. Five of six critters said my ending was abrupt? My ending is probably abrupt. Three thought I was too wordy? I’ll make a point to trim the fat. One demands to know why I referred to the Man in the Moon as a he when the moon is obviously a she? Yeah, probably gonna ignore that one.

Yet once the crit week wraps up, we might be juggling piles of suggestions for changes that cannot all be applied. Contradictory advice aside, you can’t—and shouldn’t—try to please everyone. You’ll end up with a proverbial “camel,” spliced together into a Frankenstein-ish nightmare—hacked apart and clumsily stitched back together into a monster you cannot recognize as your creation. In the end, your work isn’t made for everyone. It’s made for you. Take the advice that makes you like your story better. And as much as I hate to admit it, this often ends up being the advice that hurts the most. No, I’m not talking about advice from those who obviously hated the story and want it fundamentally changed to suit their tastes—it wasn’t written for them. Neither am I editing out the phrase “gut feeling.” That comment didn’t hurt me since, frankly, I found it a silly thing to be offended by. But the disparaging remarks about the gimmicky plot twist did hurt. That’s because, deep down in my wounded soul, I knew they were right.

However, when it comes to the core of the story—what gives it its identity and heart—that’s where I defer to the praise. Sure, those critters might’ve been so carried away by the story they missed countless glaring errors. But their lack of distraction with the narrative foibles allowed them to clearly see what the story was about—what I intended it to be. And, even throughout all the painful cuts and changes, that’s worth keeping intact.

19+ Comments

Oghamgrove

Love this! Hit the nail straight on the head :+1::+1::+1:

Apr-19 2023

Trevose

An insightful blog. Well done. :slight_smile:

It’s a tricky business sorting out what to take to heart and what to ignore when it comes to feedback, but as you noted… “that’s where I defer to the praise. Sure, those critters might’ve been so carried away by the story they missed countless glaring errors. But their lack of distraction with the narrative foibles allowed them to clearly see what the story was about—what I intended it to be. And, even throughout all the painful cuts and changes, that’s worth keeping intact.” [Emphasis added]

Obviously, this is not a suggestion to ignore negative feedback. Positive feedback does not give one the freedom to ignore the rest. But positive feedback can provide insight about the whole.

I’m reminded of a beta reader who took on a 120k-word novel I’ve written and said it would take her some time to get through it, which was fair. After the first day, she sent me some notes with a balanced mix of praise and criticism. The second day she sent me more…after about five days she was through about 80% of it and was becoming increasingly critical. She said she did not have time to work on it anymore for a while. The next day I got a note from her that started with, “Well, I couldn’t wait to find out what happened…” That made me feel good, and was important. What it told me was that inspite of some flaws and failings, the story was compelling enough (at least for her) that it kept her attention until the end. And that told me a lot.

On a different track, I’m going to use something you said as a springboard for the community at large. With surprising frequency, I hear that some writers here don’t think rigorous proofing of their work before they submit it is worth the effort until they know if their story is engaging. The problem with that – and back to what I quoted from your blog above – is that if you have too many “narrative foibles” and basic SPAG errors, no reader will ever get to the story which is unfortunate for any aspiring writer.

In all events, a well-written blog worth reading.

Apr-19 2023

Imjustdru

I feel this 100%.

Apr-19 2023

Quantum

You conveyed that so well. Need a nodding-head emoji. :clap:

Apr-19 2023

Deelo316

An excellent post, @Luluo!

Apr-19 2023

Batimamsel

This was such a great topic and so well (and amusingly) written. It should be posted somewhere where newbies could read it before they start posting, or at least before they get their first crits. I know I wish I’d seen this when I first joined.

Contradictory advice aside, you can’t—and shouldn’t—try to please everyone

. :raised_hands:t4::clap:t4:

Apr-19 2023

Luluo

lol, thanks! That means a lot!

Apr-19 2023

Luluo

I understand where they’re coming from, but I’d no more send my kid to school with headlice! That’s the kind of skin-crawly feeling I’d get if I submitted a story I hadn’t proofread, anyway.
On a site where someone will decide to bail, or says they don’t like your story, because of a typo or a small section that didn’t come across clearly, I do my darnest to iron out every little wrinkle and kink. Give 'em nothing to trip up on, other than the story problems.

Apr-19 2023

Appleseed

Well-written. This helped put my nerves at ease entering the critique phase :raised_hands: :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:

Apr-19 2023

Dksharman

Nope, not true. I’ve not been here for that long, but long enough to know when I’m wasting my time.

You get people who pick you as their favourite author and then never bother to look at anything further.

You get a critique of more than 1,000 words from someone who can’t even spell and doesn’t know what a passive verb is, despite telling you that you shouldn’t write ‘passive’.

You try to crit a story written by someone who calls it ‘horror’ and who spends the first three long paragraphs, describing how well his character can do tricks on a bicycle, and when you point out that this might not be the best way to start a story, he/she/it blocks you.

You spend 3 hours of your time highlighting all the missing punctuation, typos, spelling mistakes, and rubbish. Then, all you get in return is a blank ‘thank you’, or a note saying, ‘It’s only a draft. Ignore the punctuation,’ and you get blocked.

You try to tell a person what publishers want from a writer, and you get deleted.

I’ve done a few critiques and notice that the people you’ve carefully explained something to, repeat the same error in subsequent writing. So why the hell should I waste my time?

After all, it’s nice to be told by the ‘experts’ that regurgitating rubbish that publishers require is insulting and is ‘padding’ to get points.

I’ve posted 8 chapters and had decent crits from the same couple of people, and the rest have been a waste of my time.

Any new writer—and I’m not new—who comes here and takes advice from 90% of the critiques he/she/it receives should give up now because most of the advice is either bad or meaningless, and you have a better chance of living to a thousand than getting a valuable critique here.

I give up. I had high hopes, but I don’t have enough years left to waste my time reading drivel from people who have no idea at all. After all, I just regurgitate rubbish about grammar and publishers.

Apr-19 2023

Luluo

Well, not all my stories are written for everyone, and not all my blogs are either! :woman_shrugging:
It bears repeating: You can’t please everyone. And you shouldn’t try :slight_smile:

Apr-19 2023

Deareliza

lol, sorry

Apr-19 2023

Crazyuncle

This summed up my experience with CC very well.

Apr-19 2023

Whitebear

The people who critique the stories are non-professional and not real editors. Although I will say that editors might give you even more criticism.

Apr-19 2023

Luluo

Oh, I’ve gone through an editor before. Brutal stuff, but his observations and suggestions were all either 1) The kind that hurts because it’s true, or 2) The kind that makes you feel dumb because you should have known better without having to be told.
He also was both critical and complementary. Kinda like: “Hey! This is a great story! Now here’s eight thousand things you need to fix.”
Either way, I don’t mind criticism, personally. Or, it’s more accurate to say I really, really need it or I get lazy. But it’s all a matter of learning which suggested cuts and changes will improve your story, and which are just someone trying to inject their own ideas into your work in places where they don’t fit.

Apr-19 2023

Drakichfan

I agree with your points. It is important to consider all feedback, but ultimately, it is up to the writer to decide what to change and what to keep. It is also important to remember that not everyone will like your work, and that is okay. The most important thing is to write something that you are proud of.

Apr-19 2023

Viraltwit

You’ve just got to keep an open mind and take the feedback that makes sense to you. You can’t depend on everyone actually knowing what they’re talking about, but there are lots of little nuggets if you care to look. Often coded in a reaction, one way or another.

Unfortunately, there is also a class of reviewer who believes they’ve cornered the market on the Rules of Fiction, as if fiction follows the Chicago Manual of Style. Comma placement is often subjective and a matter of rhythm. Ditto sentence length and nominal sentences, and so on.

It’s not the reviewer’s job to inform as to what particular style is correct—read widely and you’ll see every rule broken. It’s our job to determine, and ask, if style choices are intentional, and share our reaction when we feel it’s not working.

All we have are reactions. We don’t run literary journals, and the writer’s not submitting to the publication in our heads— thus there is no common goal for what to write and how to write it. Therefore hold the judgements.

Beyond that, the biggest gifts we can give is to listen for tension. and help with how to introduce and maintain it, and help people create real characters by sharing our reaction when they’re coming off as flat or incredible. Because without those unanswered questions we won’t want to finish and without real characters we won’t care.

It’s much easier to read for these than to write for them well :slight_smile:

Apr-19 2023

Trevose

Sounds like you got your feelings hurt because you hold yourself in higher regard than the people you interacted with did, no?

Apr-19 2023

Jeffmoore

Excellent blog. You’re right about the Frankenstein affect that can come by snatching at bits of criticism. You are also right about the unusefulness of purely negative feedback. It sounds like you’ve come to some understanding of the process, some way of filtering through it that allows your work to improve. I try to reinforce the criticisms that help me improve, people pointing out extra words, clumsy phrasing etc. And sure, its nice to hear the positive things once in a while. I think people will identify with this post. It is really on point.

Apr-20 2023
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