Writing Stack Exchange
Writing Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [criticism]

Questions dealing with writing criticism, and with receiving criticism from others. Please do not use this tag for critique questions.

Questions to do with:

  • How to write criticism (e.g. movie reviews)
  • How to interpret and respond to criticism of one's work
  • How to obtain constructive criticism

...and any other questions pertaining to writing criticism and receiving it for others.

Please do not use this tag for critique questions.

56 questions
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What are good places to post your work where it will be read by others?

Seeing this site and reading some of my ridiculous stories that I wrote a while ago makes me want to start writing again. I know I'll be more enthusiastic if I have people reading my work and commenting on it, and that will also be great feedback to…
Claudiu
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9 answers

How do you cope with rejection?

I know that Bradbury was rejected about 800 times. I know the famous JK Rowling story. Yet the question is lurking in my mind, becoming stronger and clearer with each rejection: what if? What if I am really not that good, what if I am simply an…
kom
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25
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14 answers

How to deal with self-criticism?

I write non-fiction articles for my website and a weekly paid newsletter, and I’m doing that for some time now. However, I still struggle a lot with self-criticism, and find it hard to regard an article as “good”, let alone something I’m proud of.…
Jura
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23
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11 answers

Are "non-readers" useful beta readers?

In my opinion, the best beta readers are fellow writers, partly because they may have insight others don't, but partly also because you can agree to trade beta-reading responsibilities. (This is far from a rare opinion; in fact, this special case…
J.G.
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21
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9 answers

Something different: Help me find the unnecessary words.

I had a professor, once upon a time, a guy named Jim Guetti. He was possibly the best writing coach I've ever had. You took his classes for the privilege of submitting works for him to gut with a red pen. If you turned in a thousand words you'd get…
Satanicpuppy
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16
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6 answers

How to get feedback about the quality of one's fictional writing from friends unbiased by the friendship?

It is a little strange to ask, but are there ways to get feedback from friends about the quality of fictional writing (whether they liked it, not more objective aspects like spelling/grammar/etc.) unbiased by the friendship that is likely to bias…
Daniel Wessel
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16
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5 answers

What weight should be given to writers groups critiques?

I joined a writers group that meets every three weeks. I submitted the first eighteen pages of my work and also sent the same file to a publisher at AuthorHouse. The writers group had varied opinions including I need more identifiers because the…
Rasdashan
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6 answers

How harsh is too harsh when beta reviewing?

I was recently sent a document to beta review, so I transferred it to Google Docs and started making suggestions. Once I'm through the four pages, there's about thirty miscellaneous spelling/minor plot errors, plus a page of feedback on the bottom…
Ceramicmrno0b
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8 answers

Sci-fi change: Too much or Not enough

I am in the process of editing a short story. It is science fiction of the "if this goes on" kind: I take a social trend I see, and paint its event horizon - a troubling future. 1984 and Fahrenheit 451 are classical examples. I have received two…
Galastel supports GoFundMonica
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Why can I not self-reflect on my own writing critically? How can I self-edit?

When an editor goes over my writing, even if most of their feedback is Writing 101 advice, it's still super helpful because my writing has a lot of flaws. But I never notice these flaws (big picture stuff, and subtle stuff alike) while writing and…
Jack Pan
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14
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6 answers

What to look for when criticizing poetry?

A recent question got me thinking about how to criticize poetry well and I realized I am not very good at it. I can do themes, and that's about it. And I'm not even sure that should be covered unless explicitly asked for as was part of the issue in…
Summer
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4 answers

Critique vs nitpicking

During an in-class activity for my AP Lang class, each student did a cold read of a piece they chose, then all the students provided critique out loud and written on their own copy of the author's piece. I read a poem about my life, which mainly…
user34214
13
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5 answers

How to stick to your vision when you’re highly suggestible?

As a person, I'm a bit of a people-pleaser. I tend to bend over backward to avoid conflict and make people happy. I've reached the point in my writing process where I've started to send out drafts of my work to beta readers to get feedback. However,…
user2352714
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3 answers

Criticizing long fiction. How is it different from short?

I recently asked about criticism regarding short pieces of fiction. What about longer works like novels? Surely no one can sit down and agonize over individual word choices in a larger work the way they can over something as short as three to four…
Summer
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7 answers

When to ask for constructive criticism?

I have 40,000 words of a novel and I am not sure at what point to ask for constructive criticism.
Mandy Russell
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