One of the harder lessons to learn for me as a writer was that you cannot have an ego and be a writer. You have to be able to take those critiques, no matter how harsh. It is, after all, the reader’s opinion that leads to sales, not your opinion of your own work. Besides, they generally have some pretty good ideas. Hell, if they don’t then maybe you should question your choice of target audience!
So a friend just critiqued “The Think Tank” for me, and yeah, he hit on some good points; enough to justify a rewrite. I will be taking it down for the treatment shortly as a result. I did find myself becoming defensive, which I had to stop. You can’t do that. If a reader says something is unclear (or a few somethings, like major plot points!), you can’t just ignore that or argue with it. Suck it up, grow a pair, and un-f*ck the situation. Otherwise you’re just writing for yourself, and who sits around reading their own work?
People with big egos and no income, that’s who!
While I’m inclined to agree with your saying “Otherwise you’re just writing for yourself, and who sits around reading their own work?”
But, I have found that if an author doesn’t appeal to his own interests in writing, he won’t be writing much longer.
Good advice, but be sure to stay true to your own opinion of writing as you do that rewrite.
Goodluck.
Good point. Heh, that’s why I write the weirdness that I write! It’s a balancing act, isn’t it, between what you want to write and what people want to read. Lean too far in one direction and you’re a starving artist; too far in the other and you’re a sellout, and the whole time you’re hoping that what you want to write just happens to be what people want to read.
Lucky for us, fans of the weird are usually pretty open minded!
I’ll drink to that!