Taking Critiques Slevin-Style

Critiques are a blessing. They allow an objective reader (as in, not your mother) to give you an honest opinion on your work. These readers see things that you tend to gloss over because you've read your book so many times you could recite it by memory. Critiques tend to make your book better.

I say 'tend to' because every honest opinion is just that -- an opinion. One person's 'brilliant turn of phrase' could be another person's 'clunky collection of words'. Figuring out what suggestions to take can be an excruciating problem. After all, they're criticizing your baby!

Individual suggestions tend to take one of three forms. The first form is easy: the pointing out of an obvious mistake. Perhaps you misspelled surprise (because you're like me and you can never get your S's and Z's straight) or you completely forgot to describe a character that just entered the scene. In these cases, you note the mistake, fix it, and are glad you got this critique before sending out sample pages to an agent. You DID get this critique before sending out your sample pages, right?

The second form of suggestion is the alternate opinion. Someone comments on your word choice, or how the scene evolves, or how the voice just didn't do it for them -- any number of things. You don't agree or disagree with them. In most cases, you'll be tempted to say, "Well, I don't care either way, so I'll go with their opinion and make one person happy." Be wary when doing this. That is still only one person's opinion. If you honestly can't see any drawbacks with their suggestion, go ahead and try it out. But keep the old version of your MS saved somewhere, in case others tell you to change it back.

The third form of suggestion is the CRUEL, MALICIOUS INSULT THAT WOULD RUIN YOUR BOOK IF YOU IMPLEMENTED IT. Actually, that's how you'll envision it. It's actually an honest suggestion that happens to run contrary to your particular views. Particularly stubborn writers will see almost all suggestions in this light. These writers don't last long in critique groups, because they envision everyone that reads their work kissing the ground they walk on instead of giving actual advice.

So how do you know if an alternate opinion is actually an improvement? How do you know when an idiotic suggestion is actually a valid one? Well, allow me to quote a line from the movie 'Lucky Number Slevin':

"The first time someone calls you a horse, you punch him on the nose. The second time someone calls you a horse you call him a jerk. But the third time someone calls you a horse, well then perhaps it's time to go shopping for a saddle."

When multiple critiquers are telling you that a particular portion of your MS needs work, it's time to start listening. If you were on the fence before, go ahead and take the path suggested. If you were vehemently opposed to the suggestion, then it's time to start considering compromises. While the suggestions they give might be totally off-base, they are indicators of an underlying problem that needs to be fixed.

For example, I avoided long-winded descriptions in my prologue for two reasons. One: I was told early on that I was overwriting, and trimmed it down. Secondly: I hate reading prologues where half of the text is describing the world instead of describing what's happening. However, after a handful of people told me they couldn't envision the environment, I realized that I had to shove some setting description in there somewhere. I only added a little over a paragraph, but that was enough to set the scene and give readers a solid picture of where the events took place.

In another example, I was told to cut my book into two books. I knew this wouldn't work, so I vehemently opposed such an action. But the suggestion pointed at an underlying problem: the book was too long. So I set about trimming it in ways that I could accept. It's still longer than the average novel now, but at least it's shorter than the works of most of my favorite authors.

In the end, critiques and beta readers are the best way to improve your work once you think it's perfect. After all, no one is going to read your book the same way you do, and only by appeasing the general public is your novel going to become a success. So bear down and take those malicious suggestions with a 'thank you', and get to work on improving your writing.