: Re: When to ask for constructive criticism? I have 40,000 words of a novel and I am not sure at what point to ask for constructive criticism.

@Sent2472441

Vote Up Vote Down

I'd say that you would do well to compile a list for yourself of the type of criticism that you are looking for. Because what you'll get, if you throw your work out to readers without a specific task for the reader, is everything ranging from people deciding not to read it alt all, people saying 'Looks great!' (and you suspect they didn't read it either), people pointing out comma errors and tense mistakes and other minor things that really don't help much in terms of story, people identifying all the technical errors you are blind to or don't know yet, like repeating words / telling instead of showing / viewpoint issues, or people rewriting your work wholesale, or people saying your characters have no goals, your story no arc, your scenes no structure...

In other words, there's a good chance what you'll be given in return is not what you expect if you don't constrain the request up front. (Also, spend time identifying good readers. These are usually writers.)

So. Compile a list of the feedback you want, at any stage of writing that you desire. Compiling the list will also help you find mistakes on your own. Not sure what to put on the list? A good place to get ideas is on writing blogs, and also by spending time critiquing other writers' work.

I recently took a single sheet to a group I'm in, and on this sheet I had story-boarded a trilogy I'd like to write. I wanted constructive feedback on the ideas, and we spent about thirty minutes hashing through the story arcs I had sketched for the trilogy. There was not a single named character yet, no words at all in story, but I wanted feedback on the concepts.

Answer: So, at any stage in the story writing process, you can solicit constructive feedback--but you probably are doing yourself a disservice if you don't know the specific type of feedback you want beforehand. (Most beginning writers say "Is it interesting?" and I'd urge you to look a little deeper than that, because having been on the receiving end of that a number of times, I've come to realize whether it is interesting or not still boils down to details of crafting a story.)

(0)

Login to post a comment!