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Get Started In Creative Writing: Seek critics not fans

by Stephen May

When you’ve written something you feel is good, you’re going to want someone to read it. This is natural. A piece of writing that is never read might as well never have been written. And you’ve worked hard on it. You’ve sweated blood over it. There were moments when it felt like your brain was bleeding, so difficult was the struggle to put the right words in the right order.

If you want to feel good for a moment then show it to someone who loves you. But if you want your writing to improve show it to people whose literary judgement you trust. People who are notoriously hard to please.

And then ask them to tell you what is wrong with your work. Praise teaches you much less than criticism. It is always your work. You are always free to reject criticism once it’s been made, but the chances are that there is something in what the critics have to say. Especially if two or more say the same sorts of things.

So embrace criticism. Seek out that pain. It might make you angry. It might make you depressed. But it will definitely make your work better.

Fans are for having drinks with or for going to dinner with. Fans are your friends. But fans aren’t necessarily good for your writing.



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Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself

Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself
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