It helps to read through your own work critically first so that you can already spot a few places that could use work. If you're already in the mood to critique your own work it will be easier to accept other people's criticisms of it. You can't take the advice personal. Yes, what is being looked at his something you've personally written, but it is not personally YOU. Everyone is only trying to help...hopefully. I usually find that the most helpful feedback is always the little stuff; the grammatical corrections and the words changes that help to convey a point more smoothly. Even the comments on confusing parts in my work that I should try to make a bit clearer.
I find that the feedback I usually ignore is what I take as personal: comments about just overall not liking my work or vague points on that I should change something, but not accompanied by any words on how. If an idea sounds out of place to me after I read it, then it usually is. I usually read/listen to all comments that come my way and try to imagine the corrections or actually implement them to see how they look/sound within my work. But if the criticism sounds wrong from the beginning I usually will run the idea by another pair of eyes and see if they agree with it.
In the end my choosing to receive or ignore feedback all depends on the mood I am in and the attachment I have to the work I've put out to be criticized. I feel like every blog post I've posted thus far is my attempting to flush out a specific answer to one question only to find in the end that there is no set answer for that question. I'm hopeless(ly indecisive when it comes to structure), I know.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Alana,
ReplyDeleteif you can get a clear definition of what you're writing sifting through the larger comments is much easier--this applies, this does not...yes the questions go on,
e
I think it's more important to consider what YOU like about your pieces and see what it is that you like about it and how you can flush that out. When you are passionate about what you write about, others are too.
ReplyDeleteLupe
I agree with getting a second opinion if it advice sounds off thats why workshops are good then you have lots of people and I think in general the more comments the better your stuff is. Because you have to have something there in the first place to warrant a comment.
ReplyDeleteit's true that vague feedback is less helpful, and sometimes just frustrating. it's good, also, to read the feedback and then walk away for a day and let the comments settle in.
ReplyDelete