Is Critique worth your time? Maybe not.
People write for many reasons, and everyone is at varying
degrees of education in writing, many of them self-taught. They also have many
foibles, likes and dislikes about writing, which inherently, eke into their
opinions of any given work handed to them.
Like the general public about art, they may not know anything,
but they know what they like. Ever heard that one before? And chances
are you’ve used that phrase one or twice. Any given person’s opinion on
anything is only valid if they have the training and experience to back it up.
Opinions are not facts. Say this out loud with me: Opinions are not facts.
In order to make solid, grounded judgments on any given body of
work, the person making those calls needs to know how to write well – and
simply not by hearing, but they also need to know the mechanics of our
language. i.e. when using colons or semi-colons is called for. Or the m-dash
versus the n-dash. New writers cannot do that. And if they were to
be critiquing any work – even of other new writers, that would be a classic
case of the blind leading the blind. Again, Opinions are NOT facts.
That’s the equivalent of a 12-year old critiquing someone who’s been writing
for 15 years. A Waste of Time.
Next time you’re at critique, take a look around the room. Do
you know anything of the person beside you who you are trusting with your
manuscript? How can you know if your partner(s) have the correct amount of
experience to guide you with your writing? Will you learn anything in the
process? Will you learn why something works or doesn’t work?
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