Welcome Story Critique - Play the Red Pen Game...

 

There was a movie in the '70s called, Walking Tall, about a sheriff who was a calm law enforcer, who walked his beat with confidence, holding a big old baseball bat. His controlled demeanor, and what he could do with that bat, if pressed, was what kept the townsfolk in line...or holy hell would be paid.

Well, the members of my in-person writers process group call my edit pen, Big Red, along the same lines of that movie — me, as the sheriff, and my pen that big old bat... lol... 

Of course, they know I'm not brutal or scary, but they've come to realize I'm passionate about making their pieces the very best they can be. I already KNOW they're all extremely talented. That has never been in question. The goal with those edits is NOT to demean, but to make their already wonderful works shine.

Where did I get my passion, you ask? From instructors who did the exact same for me.

A writer never learns, never evolves, from their successes. Advancement in one's métier comes from their highlighted mistakes, and through a figurative truckload of them over the years, I've learned to play a mind game with myself — the Red Pen Game.

After a work is finished — drafts, Read Out Loud, betas, rewrites — I ASSUME there ARE mistakes a plenty in that final draft. 

The Game: with the help of an editor, let's see how many we can find and annihilate! It's like a game of Battleship, where the author is unaware of his enemy's location, so the player needs help in finding and firing off those torpedoes to down those errant suckers!

The Key: by ASSUMING my work is flawed right from the start, I've taken the pressure off myself to be perfect to others. And with every flaw found, and corrected, it's like the downing of an enemy battleship, slaying each foe, inevitably advancing my artistic skill. 

I literally LOOK FORWARD to error location in my works from others! No, seriously!

I'm confident in my own skill as a wordsmith, but I know I am nowhere near perfect, and I need others to uncover what I myself cannot see, now, and for the rest of my artistic life.

Fear of Critique stems from a writer having little self-confidence in their own skill — again, the psychological. Are you getting now why I say writing is 90%  a mind game?

• New writers shouldn't be self-conscious about their ability. 
• New writers should feel empowered by their passion and eager to become a learning sponge, soaking up as much knowledge as possible about the literary arts, from every mentor who comes their way.

As long as the red pen critiques are,

• specific to a certain flaw  - story development, line/style consistency, proofing
  
• not a sweeping criticism or a blatant attack in terms of taste, or co-writer jealousy
  

Then welcome them with open arms, smile at their happenstance, rewrite, and learn to not make the same mistake again.

And above all, ask WHY? 

You need to know why a sentence or scene doesn't work to know why being delivered a different way does, so that you can internalize that error, and never make the same mistake again. 

Warning: If you gloss over these edits, you're not internalizing the errors, and you WILL be as a serial killer, and continue to maim your works in the same way, over and over again.

The Result: once you look at edits as a game and treat them in the right way, you will never be afraid to have your works thoroughly Red Penned. And that result, right there, will have you,

• fearing the process less
• wanting to write more
• making less excuses not to write.

Your STOP Not Writing dragon greatly slayed...

Fear of Being Critiqued...

 

New writers get their feelings hurt when someone reads their manuscript and points out the inherent flaws. They might not admit the hurt, but it's there...

 

It amazes me why writers should be any different from any other apprentice in any other métier.

 

If a beginner pianist gets a note wrong in the song they are playing, everybody listening — including the pianist — knows they made a mistake.

They accept the pianist needs more practice.

The pianist accepts they need more practice.

Nobody gets offended.

Nobody debates the issue.

The pianist gets more practice and someday soon they will perform the piece again without those flaws. Nobody has a meltdown about it.

 

Then WHY do beginner writers not accept this fact?

Because writing is broken down like this:

20% skill

9% imagination

1% luck

70% psychological.

 

Yes, my furry wittle writers... the greatest percentage of successful writing is to surmount the psychological.

 

It will happen, but not without extreme amounts of practice, completing many types and lengths of works on many subjects with many styles of delivery utilized, and ALL ably critiqued.

 

No, my pretties, it doesn't happen because you own a pen and some paper or a laptop, and you happen to have a thought in your head.

I'll repeat that: It doesn't happen because you own a pen and some paper or a laptop, and you happen to have a thought in your head.

 

The fear of critique disintegrates the moment you accept this fact.

You are freed from any Ego you are petting right now inside your head.

You accept you ARE an apprentice.

You accept you WILL make mistakes.

You acknowledge it's your craft that needs work, NOT your person.

 

So, what does this awareness do for you? 

You no longer feel afraid of submitting your manuscripts to others for assessment. 

 

Note: by "others" I mean learned souls when it comes to the mechanics of writing - plot/character development, style consistency, grammar/proofing.

And no, your mother doesn't count as a learned soul unless she's an English or Creative Writing university prof, and can distance herself from being your mom (likely not).

 

From this point forward, you EXPECT to get your manuscript back with as much red pen ink on it as the original black. And when you do, you LEARN from those corrections.

You don't ignore them.

You don't avoid them.

You don't gloss over them.

You own and internalize them, and take them as GIFTS, never making those same mistakes again.

 

Example in Point: I once typed the word, "shinny" instead of "shiny" in a manuscript. Word confusions like this are tricky to locate by a writer, but, of course, my beta reader easily caught it, and chuckled! And I laughed too, feeling like a 4-square idiot! Well, let me tell you, a month doesn't go by that I don't read either of those words or attempt to use those words that my past gaffe doesn't spring to mind, and I smile. And that mistake happened YEARS ago!

 

If the reader hadn't pointed that error out to me, how would I have known to be more careful in searching for similarly spelled word sets? That critique became a lifelong gift!

 

After many years of writing manuscripts with words written into the multi-millions, I no longer fear critique.

I expect it.

I welcome it.

And if someone who reads my MSs doesn't have anything critical to say, then I get suspicious, and look even harder for the gaffes I KNOW are there.

 

And as new writers, so should you!

 

Remember what I said: writing is mostly a psychological endeavor. The sooner you get over yourself and let your Ego take a flying leap, the sooner your craft will improve.

 

Reality Check: You will be correcting your works and learning this craft for the rest of your life. There are no perfect writers. Ask any master pianist.