A Lot of Critique is GREAT! If it all is in sync...

Part of the writing process is getting feedback. It is this feedback that gives a writer a new perspective on his or her story. For many writers, this feedback comes from their critique partners or critique groups. For other writers, the feedback comes from contests they enter or outside critiques. It really doesn't matter where you get it from, it is all good.

Sort of...

The biggest drawback all of this critique can have is trying to meet the needs of ALL of the readers. In other words, a writer simply tries to accomplish what everyone has said in the critiques and the end result is a tangled mess of a story. Let me explain.

Writers fail to look at the big picture of things. They get feedback from two different people on one select scene or group of chapters. Instead of taking all of the comments and looking at the issues as a whole, they work with one person at a time. While on the surface, this might seem like a completely logical approach to the revisions, they could run into contradictory issues. What the writer fails to see is that each of the critique partners were seeing the story in a different light and certainly seeing the outcome differently. They were focusing on techniques that would take the story to THEIR ending.

Think of this as if you were cooking. Someone comes over and tastes the soup you have in the pot. Someone might say that it needs some sugar to enhance the flavor. Someone else might encourage you to add another spice or a vegi and someone else might recommend taking something out. The end result could be a mess that isn't even edible. All that you have accomplished is to follow the suggestions of all of your critics without thinking of how it would all fit together.

This is one of the biggest issues I have with writers who enter a ton of contests. While they might think they are getting all of these great comments (which they might be) they are also dragging the story back and forth in different directions because many of the comments might be focusing on different factors that simply don't work together.

The solution is simple. THINK!

Scott