Constructive Criticism – Write on the World

Obtaining feedback on your manuscript during the evaluation step of the writing process shouldn’t be the same experience as getting your mom’s proud stamp of approval on your published novel. The last thing any writer needs or wants at this stage of the writing process is for anyone to stroke your ego and tell you how awesome you are. During the evaluation stage, it’s important to seek out targeted feedback that will help you improve your writing.

The best writing feedback is constructive. It helps you determine how to make your novel draft better rather than falsely convincing you that your writing is perfect!

While it may be nice to hear that you are doing a great job, it’s not particularly helpful when what you really want is constructive criticism. Here are some tips for getting productive feedback on your writing:

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English: Students working with a teacher at Al... — How do you provide criticism to a student without destroying his or her sense of self-worth? | English: Students working with a teacher at Albany Senior High School, New Zealand. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

One of the most important – and most difficult – parts of teaching is providing constructive criticism without destroying a students’ belief that he or she is capable of succeeding in school.

I recently started reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity and am working through some of the exercises she presents in her 12-week course. This morning’s task was to write about three old enemies of my creative self-worth.

I’ve been lucky in that I’ve had a lot of encouragement of my writing endeavors throughout most of my life, so it was hard for me to think of three. Then I remembered my high school Rhetoric tea Continue reading “Criticism: How to be constructive rather than destructive” →