What’s the worst critique you’ve received?

[Linda Adams]

Feel free to share!

My worst was when I submitted a chapter of my story to an online group. I’d been critiquing there for years, so I expected … better than I got.

The story was written in omniscient viewpoint, and I wasn’t sure if I’d quite nailed it yet. I was still new to writing it then. Ten writers jumped all over me for using the viewpoint — NOT the writing — telling me things like “You’ll never get published if you use it.”

Hmm. Last time I checked, omniscient viewpoint wasn’t on any agent’s top ten do not list.

Then there was this: “I’m sure you know your story, but here’s how you would write it in third.” This after I had said I started out in third, changed it to first, and then switched to omni. I’ve been writing for decades, and they treated me like I had just decided to write a novel for the first time and had arbitrarily picked omni. And not one person critiqued the actual writing.

[zette]

The worst I remember turned out to be amusing when I finally learned the truth.

I was told that I had the wrong Main Character and I needed to drop Carmen in favor of her brother. I was confused because his story was clearly completely different from the path Carmen took and the story she presented.

A few months later the same person stated that she would NEVER write a female main character because she would be accused of being a feminist.

Okay, there was a woman with some really bad personal issues.

I had ignored the advice anyway, of course, but I was amused to learn the truth behind it.

[magicalbookworm]

I think my worse crits are the critter not telling me anything just sending back a “I liked it”. no reason why – no nothing. I’m not sure if it would qualify as ‘worse’ Crit – but having your work just sit in a forum or a crit group and no one touching it… that’s never good.

I haven’t had anyone crit my work for a few years because of how depressing it is not to see new crits come in.

[Gabriele Campbell]

I got those bovine excrements about omni not going to sell, too. I left that crit group and found a more reasonable one on FM (thanks MarFisk for explaining the difference between good omniscient and head hopping).

[NinjaFingers]

Worst?

I sent a novel out to two beta readers.

One: I loved it – no explanation.

The other: I hated it – completely unconstructive explanation about how it was terrible and needed to be burned and completely rewritten.

Yeah. Neither of them read for me again.

[Wandering Author]

In junior high, I was attempting my first novel. And I was perhaps fifty pages in when someone (I can’t even remember who) shredded it and flushed the pieces down the toilet. With appropriate commentary. (Remember, this was junior high. Use your imaginations; what would a not very imaginative junior high kid say while flushing something down the toilet. “This is ____!” – fill in your own blank.)

The story was terrible. It’s funny now, years later. At the time? It was pretty painful. I took that story very seriously at the time. I even had an illustrator lined up for it. (Not a pro illustrator, obviously. One of my classmates.)

Okay, the truth is out. I was a hopeless dork. But, in a way, they did me a favour. After that, no other crit would ever be half as terrifying. (Since I always had a spare copy of my manuscript stashed somewhere… )

[shanti]

A relatively new friend became excited when she discovered I wrote. She asked to read something of mine, so, after much deliberation, I gave her a short story I thought she might like. I saw her a week later and asked her what she thought. She replied she didn’t finish it, she just wanted to see what my writing was like. And then she said, “You like using a lot of words, don’t you?”

I was devastated. The worst part was I had to stay there and smile at her for another hour and pretend I wasn’t siting in a pile of my own guts.

Later, she told me her favorite author was Hemingway. I write epic fantasy—my style is about as far from Hemingway’s as imaginable. I’m capable of writing clean, spare prose, but I prefer a somewhat more baroque style. Realizing that we just had different preferences made me feel somewhat better.

[Author]

Posts