Individuality and Critique

Back to one of my favourite subjects critiques, and are they at any point in the life of a writer any good. They are I admit a necessary commodity, but when is the best time to listen to them?

 I have had a couple of people reading one of my stories from beginning to end, and I ask myself was it worth the time and energy? Does anyone really know how to push their personal interests aside and give a true account of what they have read? At the end of the day after these people have read the manuscript they can only give their own opinion. It is this point of individuality that I am referring to

SEVEN SISTERS-Nr Seaford-East-Sussex

Stephen Dawson

I have let two people read my story and both have come back with different points of view. Neither knew that it was me that had written the story so there was no bias critique. It is this point where I have to ask, was the exercise a pointless waste of time? They both liked the story they had read, and never once complained about my greatest problem with publishers, the lack of English Grammar. They are just two people out of the millions of readers we have in the UK. So was it fair to ask them to speak for the multitude, and the answer has to be no.

DEVILS DYKE North of BRIGHTON

Everyone reads a story or book in their own way, and they all know what they are looking for in a book. Not everyone thinks the same way or likes a style of writing that they are not used to. So by letting a person critique his/her story a writer might get a negative answer that has nothing to do with the story, but has everything to do with the person that read it.

The two readers also told me what they never liked about the story which had nothing to do with the content or the story itself. They were telling me how I should write a story that was in their format, which I would like to point out to all reading this post was as different as chalk and cheese. Now put these two critiques in the mix with the one that I already have from an editor and I ask myself what should I do?

 The editor only told me to put feeling into the characters so that it never read like a history lesson. Give the Hun an aggressive attitude which they had in real life. I have done what the editor told me to do, because he probably has the professional ability to know what the majority like. He never told me how he wanted the story written because he cannot write for me, however he did tell me what was wrong with the story.

PEVENSEY CASTLE

The story was a dated story about the time 480 a.d. and I have to ask the question—as long as the story runs smooth with 87% readability by my word processor, is perfect grammar necessary? Neither the Hun nor anyone in that century would speak perfect whether English or foreign.

I have decided that I will give it one more shot with five readers this time and see what falls out of the mix. I am not naive as to think one person is going to thoroughly like the story from beginning to end. Neither am I looking for all good critiques before going further with the book, but it might just give me an inkling of what is in the normal reader’s minds.

It is the last sentence in the above paragraph that I associate myself with, because I write stories in the way I like to read them. Yes I have returned once more to the word, individuality.

Be well Ian