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the number of people i& #39;ve seen who have said "criticism at a key point really hurt my will to write" has been making me think about like, the role of crit at different stages in the process & the importance of an environment of trust & respect for critique?
ime writing seems to have multiple phases, & while the story is still being made, critique of flaws often appears to be demotivating, especially if it& #39;s unsolicited. it seems like pointing out good things & making problem-solving suggestions, if asked, help more?
i& #39;d guess that& #39;s related to "writing vs editing" brain. not everyone has that? but many ppl seem to have writing mode (creation/generation) vs editing mode (finding/correcting/DESTRUCTION!) & i& #39;m guessing premature critique flips ppl to a brainmode too critical to create
i& #39;ve noticed writers are also sensitive to negative feedback from the first person they show a work after it& #39;s done. i wonder if that& #39;s bc the question they& #39;re asking isn& #39;t "how good is it?" but "is there anything worthwhile in it?" & criticism, poorly given, answers q2 w/ & #39;no& #39;
everyone knows the one person in a room you can& #39;t see is yourself. this is probably vulnerable as a moment of first exposure. you don& #39;t know if the writing has any worth, you& #39;re inside it. so you ask for someone outside to tell you if there& #39;s anything worth working to make better
after that it& #39;s just helpful crit vs unhelpful crit. i think that ppl can learn even unhelpful crit, but HOPEFULLY at the pre-posting stage, writers are going to people they trust who know how to point out what works for them & give suggestions for what doesn& #39;t
i feel like ppl say & #39;pointing out the good is just being nice,& #39; but imo it& #39;s also extremely useful to say what DOES work, or else ppl may tear apart the bits that are what holds a thing together. critique as a second pair of eyes ALSO points out what should STAY
one thing i& #39;ve tried to do lately whenever someone hands me smth to beta is ask what kind of feedback they& #39;re looking for. ime even trying to give feedback on sentences, when someone is trying to focus on story beats, can throw off their groove?
a response to this might be & #39;writers need to know how to take all kinds of feedback& #39; & yeah, when you& #39;re late in the PUBLISHING process maybe, but like. i beta bc i want to help friends, & part of helping is asking what THEY need, not what /I/ want to give. im not doing it for me
anyway just some thoughts i& #39;ve been having. ig i just wanna hold my friends & be like, "sometimes, people are just bad at giving feedback. that& #39;s them being bad at betaing, not you being bad at writing." all writing needs improvement & not everyone is good at helping w/ that
(which btw obv betaing is also a skill that needs to be learned & can improve from feedback too. bc... most things are skills that can be learned & improved from feedback. sweet!)
