Constructive Criticism is GOOD
Years ago, I dated a guy who ate every kind of food I made. I loved tweaking recipes and experimenting with brand new dishes, and without fail he’d just shovel everything from his plate into his mouth (we won’t talk about the stories surrounding two occasions when I made chili con carne, one aggravating and one rather humorous) and go.
While this was great for my experimenting, it was absolutely terrible for developing my skills. Why? Because if I asked him to evaluate anything, he would just shrug. Something like the following would go down, regardless of the dish:
Me: “What do you think?”
Him: “I liked it.”
Me: “I’m glad. But what did you like about it.”
Him: “The flavor.”
Me: “What about it? Sweet? Savory? Salty?”
Him: “It was good.”
Round and round.
What does this have to do with writing? Well, I can experiment all I’d like and pump out new stories, and if people read them all with no criticisms, good or bad, I can’t tell what is really working and what isn’t. The review system of the major retailer itself has become a machine of quantity rather than quality, pushing works that have more reviews, even if they are negative*. It’s great the sell books, no doubt about that, but that tells me nothing. Trash can sell rather well, and masterpieces can go unnoticed.
While volume of reviews helps, it’s the criticism with some qualitative element in one direction or another that benefits an author greatly.
Example time: An author experiments with the points of view in the story, choosing third person for all characters and switching to first person just for the villain. A reviewer writes that it “didn’t work” for them – this shouldn’t steer the author to drop the method altogether, but at least give it an analysis as to why it might not have worked in the story. Perhaps switching characters’ POVs, first for hero and third for villain, might have suited better. Or it wasn’t convincing enough. It shouldn’t get the author overthinking but maybe giving it more attention than before. Nor should an author EVER try to cater to a single reader’s comments, for all kinds of reasons.
So next time you read something, please leave a review for the author, whether it’s on the major ebook retailers and outlets, or even in forums you may frequent (you never know, maybe they belong to some of them). Or, maybe just drop a line to the author themselves, if they are amenable to getting “fan mail”. If your critique displays some of those specific criticisms, you may just be invited to beta read for them.
If you ARE interested in being a beta reader, drop me a line – trneff@overlordmpress.com.
*Yes, I understand the nuances behind why a story with 3000 2-star reviews is pushed more than one with 20 5-star reviews, but that’s for the sales, growth of the author’s wallet rather than his skill. Most authors don’t wish to get stuck writing the same thing over and over.
