Tell me it's bad | The importance of criticism

One of, if not thee most important aspect of writing is persistence. If you don't believe in your work and what you're doing, fact is that you may give up early.

You will inevitably get bad reviews, feedback and rejection letters. You will have to face criticism and how you react to that will define your progression.

I have always actively looked for feedback and I always am more interested in the negative feedback. If someone calls me out on my work lacking in any way, I always ask them to expand on their points. I want to face the criticism head on in order to correct the issues and grow from the feedback in order to become a better writer.

Sometimes the feedback may be down to personal taste. Not all feedback needs to be acted upon as there is a fair amount of bad advice that can be fed back. I have experienced this first hand. During my time writing screenplays, I acted upon feedback given by a competition judge. I followed his advice to the T, including changing the starting point of the story. After resubmitting the following year, this judge picked up on it and stated that he thought he had found where the story had originally started before I added extra exposition during the start of the story. Amazingly, he was correct and he even went as far in his notes as to say that this decision may have been the result of me taking on board bad advice, or something to that degree.

An important thing to note is that it doesn't necessarily matter who the feedback comes from for its legitimacy. You can receive very important notes from friends and even family, even though it may not seem as important in contrast to industry professionals such as literary agents and publishers.

When starting out, it can be very difficult to hear the criticism of something you have put everything into. This is why some people might never put their work out there because of this fear. But what is important to remember is, if you truly thing it is your best work and a great story, then why not give it a shot?

The worst thing that can happen to a book is for it to be hidden away and never shared.

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Twitter @PaulMcCracken_ Facebook @PaulMcCrackenAuthor Layla's Song is available on Amazon as Paperback and Kindle