The Art of Criticism

For something to become stronger, it needs to be broken first.

If you want big muscles, you need to work out. If you want to make a sharp sword, you need to melt some iron. Every skill, job, and art form on the planet requires you to make sacrifices to improve, and writing is no different.

Now, “sacrificing” your writing isn’t as simple as smashing your laptop or burning your notebook. No, improving your writing requires a much greater sacrifice. It won’t cost you any money and you won’t physically lose anything, but believe me, it’s still a sacrifice.

If you really want to improve your writing, you’re going to have to learn to take criticism.

Now, at first glance that may not seem like that big a deal—sticks and stones, right? But writing is a deeply personal craft, and that’s what makes taking criticism so hard for so many writers. The bond between a writer and their work is like the bond between a mother and her child, and if you’ve ever tried criticizing a child before, you’ll know that mothers don’t take too kindly to that sort of thing. However, criticism is an absolute must if you wish to better your writing in any meaningful way.

You have only one perspective with which you can examine and alter your writing. That perspective is also limited to your own opinions and life experiences, and unless you’re writing an autobiography, that might be a bit of a problem. Lucky for you, that problem is easily solvable. Getting new perspectives on your work is actually very attainable, especially since we live in an age where information can outrun the wind. All you need to do is put yourself out there. I like to use social media for this sort of thing, but although the Internet is a great option, it isn’t your only one.

You can, and should, share your work with anyone and everyone who will listen. They don’t have to be writers themselves, they can be friends, family, teachers, or anybody. Oftentimes, the best advice comes from the people who aren’t writers.

The first people I ever shared my stories with were my parents, at the ripe old age of eight. As is the case with every parent, their “criticism” was more about encouraging me than helping me improve. I don’t blame them for that; encouragement is useful, especially when you’re a new writer. But it’s not exactly sacrificial. If you want to reap all the possible benefits you can attain by sharing your work, you need to involve people who are comfortable giving you their honest opinions.

Once you’ve shared your work, the hard part begins. You’ve already asked someone for criticism, now all you need to do is take it. Unfortunately, it’s a bit more complicated than just listening and nodding your head. You must be able to extract the useful advice from the less useful advice, analyze patterns so you can understand where exactly you could improve, and then figure out how to apply it to your future drafts. If you want to make something that’s truly polished and perfected, you’ll likely have to repeat each of these steps multiple times, which can make revisions feel like a bit of a slog. Still, it’s important that you take your time and think carefully about each change you make; editing poorly can often be worse than not editing at all. The whole process may seem a little complicated, but nobody ever said that writing would be easy.

There are, however, tons of different things you can do to help lessen the emotional blow that you may feel when hearing someone dissect your work. You want people’s words to be honest, but there’s no shame in asking them to be polite. The best kind of criticism is always constructive. It’s also a good idea to ask people to first tell you what they enjoyed about reading your work, so you don’t accidentally change something you did well. Like all things, taking criticism gets easier over time.

Just remember that the person you’re talking to isn’t insulting you just because they disagree with your word choice or one of your favourite plot points.

If you’re willing to take things a step further, you can flip the table and become a critic yourself. Not only are you helping another writer out, but you can discover mistakes that may be present in your own work. It doesn’t even have to be someone you know, either. Any book, movie, or poem you can get your hands on has flaws waiting to be uncovered, no matter how good it is. All you have to do is don your rubber gloves, grab your scalpel, and cut it open.

Like all things writing related, persistence is key. Don’t let a bad encounter or argument with one of your critics discourage you. Never hold yourself back from sharing something simply because you believe it’s “not good enough.” The truth is, nothing is ever good enough to us as writers. That’s the beauty of writing; there’s always room for improvement but improvement is never going to come if you aren’t willing to take feedback.

So, what are you waiting for? Get to sacrificing.