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Critical Concerns: Taking and Giving Criticism in Writing
Criticism is a difficult thing to take, sometimes, especially if you’re particularly proud of the piece you’ve written. The basic thing to understand, though, is that not everyone will be pleased by what you’ve done, and often people will pick out one small detail they find negative in your piece and focus on that, eventually overshadowing and overriding any – and perhaps all – meritorious things that your piece has. It’s pretty difficult, as well, to criticize, especially if you know the effects of criticism or if you’re not entirely confident that your critique is value-adding. To be an effective writer and critic, though, you must look at the piece…
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Keeping Focus In Writing
Writers have the interesting – sometimes productive, sometimes just plain bad – habit of thinking of a lot of ideas that can be penned down and used for later. In other words, really, there are a million worlds running through a writer’s head, and they’re just dying to be written. It’s fun, of course, especially if you go through a rather productive brainstorming session when you’re looking for a new project to work on. It’s a blessing when you’re looking for those ideas. It’s a curse when you’re midway through a story idea and something else tries to grab your attention. While it’s not necessarily wrong to juggle several writing projects at…
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The Importance of Writing Breaks
It’s pretty easy to get carried away when it comes to writing. A lot of authors agree that writing is a largely solitary act, one that hinges prominently on the writer and what the writer knows – or is trying to make up – and how the writer can deliver these pieces of knowledge. Of course, the idea of co-authorship or interpretation comes into play, when the reader steps in. But before that part of the process, the writer has to focus on actually writing. The tendency, then, is to keep the self isolated from all forms of distracting activity, people, or an environment that’s not conducive to writing. At…
