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3/12/2023 0 Comments

Writing Craft #2 Critique

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reposted from 12/31/13 from Donna O'Donnell Figurski's Blog


     It is scary to put your work out there for critical eyes. It leaves you wide open. It leaves you vulnerable. Of course you’ve done your best and you love every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph. You’ve worked hard. You’ve crafted each word until your eyes seem to turn inward. You think that you can make your article, essay, story, or book no better and you hope that your reviewer will feel the same. After all, if you did not think it was your best, you would not have released it for other eyes – right?

     It’s hard to hear critiques – even the positive ones. Those words you dragged out of your head and arranged into neat little lines on the paper to tell your story are your babies. As a mother is protective of her child, you too, are the keeper of your words – their protector, their proud creator. So you don your armor, harden your shell, stiffen your upper lip, hold your breath, and … hope for the best.

     If you have chosen a reviewer, someone who you respect and who you can trust, then trust you must! Don’t fear the red pen. Listen with eager mind but remember too, that her opinion is only one view and not necessarily better than yours. Although she, no doubt, will look at your work with fresher, more neutral eyes, you must still pick and choose and determine what you think will move your writing further – what will make your story the best it can be.

     Then go back to the keyboard … and tackle your work with a new outlook until your piece shines – brighter than before.

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If you hate my blog, go ahead and send it to your enemies. (10 enemies would be good.) I won’t mind.

(Clip Art compliments of Bing.)




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    Author

    I am the author of Prisoners without Bars: A Caregiver's Tale. It's the true story of how my husband almost left me--three times.
    He had three brain surgeries in less than two weeks. Those are pretty drastic measures, don't you think? I told him if he didn't come back to me, I would never forgive him. And guess what? It worked. He did!​

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