The Unrequested Critique, Turning Pain into Pleasure.

                                                   "There is only one way
                                    to avoid criticism:
                                    do nothing
                                     say nothing
                                     be nothing."

                                                         -Aristotle



I am one of those freaks who liked school.I liked in in the 20th century when I attended as a youngster. I liked it in the 21st century when I returned as a post modern fifty-five year old.

I especially enjoyed the workshop atmosphere in the Creative Writing department at The University of Illinois. We wrote, we made copies, we shared with the group.  Feedback was returned in writing or  through a verbal roundtable of advice, constructive criticism, and encouragement. Depending on the class, professors chimed in or they remained silent, grading the writers and the reviewers on effort given.

I always appreciated the feedback, and even though my classmates were decades younger, they had excellent insight and made valuable suggestions. Feedback is good, when you ask for it, when it is expected, but what happens when you receive a large amount of very specific feedback which is not anticipated?

You say Thank You Very Much.

This happened to me earlier in the spring. I submitted several poems to a well known organization in Ireland, Fish Publishing. Winners would be published in their annual anthology. At the time of entry, poets had the option of paying extra to have their poem critiqued by one of the staff. I didn't elect this option. I am not exactly a starving artist, we do have a substantial vegetable garden, but funds are limited for this homesteader/writer. Nine days after submitting my work, I received an email informing me a critique of one of my poems was done in error. Did I want to see it? There was no additional charge.

I jumped at the offer. Please refer to paragraph one of this blog, the part where I admit to loving school.

The feedback I received was detailed, insightful, beneficial, and painful. The painful part was the best part. The reviewer had spent good time with my poem, picking up on the inconsistencies in tense and punctuation, noting my tendency to say in ten words what could be said in three, and holding me accountable for my lack of control, focus and precision.  Wow. Color me chastised.

He also commended me for my strengths: "strong ideas with a nice central metaphor", "I can see a writer here with lots of talent and potential", "a writer with a fine eye and ear for detail",  and "you are obviously very capable."

The finest part of his review  was the line by line analysis, a close reading of my work that felt microscopic in intent but not malicious. The detail was insightful and intrusive in a decent way. He read my poem, he heard my poem, and he wanted my poem to be the best it could be, so he pinpointed areas most in need of revision.

Although I wanted to make changes, it took a few weeks for me to revisit this poem of mine. I had felt bruised, a bit bopped on the head like Little Bunny Foo-Foo, but ego must be set aside if one wants to write well. After reading my poem with a critical eye instead of the creators heart, its flaws were blatantly obvious and I tackled it's revision with a surprising appetite. Soon, I'll submit this new, and I believe. improved version and if published elsewhere, I will send a copy of it to the reviewer at Fish Publishing with a second note of thanks (I did thank him for the original "accidental" critique).

Thus, my advise is this. Grab fast to those opportunities to have your work reviewed, critiqued and yes, even criticized. You might take those suggestions, you might reject them, but the process can be enlightening. Besides, writing in a vacuum might be safe, but most of the time it just sucks.