Coping with Critique and Criticism: Part 1

Are you thin-skinned?

As an editor, my job is to evaluate a piece of writing (be it an essay or a full-length book) for structure, thoroughness, organization, and PUGS (punctuation, word usage, grammar, syntax). But I also have a responsibility that I take just as seriously—to guide, advise, and, in some cases, mentor a writer. That is not an obligation, it is my choice.

What I have found is that some writers accept criticism well. And some do not. This latter group makes my job harder. But it makes my responsibility painful.

Self-published Writers Bypass Editors

I’m going to let you in on a little secret; the world of professional editing is being rocked by a surge in self-edited, self-published books. On editing forums (yes, we have those) editors lament this undeniable fact: people write, self-edit, and self-publish without ever letting a professional editor lay eyes on the work. With all due respect, this has resulted in a glut of books of questionable quality available for online purchase. And Amazon, the undisputed giant of online book sales, does not care whether the books that writers self-publish are fair, good, or stink to high heaven. It’s all the same to Amazon, which makes money whether your book sells 100,000 copies or none at all.

But I’m not going to debate the Amazon model, because, let’s face it, Jeff Bezos is doing pretty well and doesn’t want my opinion.

Skipping the Editor Due to Cost

I am in several writers’ groups on Facebook. These folks, many of whom have no training or education in writing and have never published anything, are constantly debating the necessity of hiring a professional editor. My brain nearly explodes every time dozens of people chime in about how “you are perfectly capable of editing your own work.” Or this question, which is common, “I’m finished writing, but I can’t afford to hire an editor. What should I do?” This question is answered with a barrage of bad advice like “You don’t need to hire an editor. Just ask friends to be beta readers and let them catch errors.” Should I cry or punch the wall? Decisions, decisions.

Here’s where I want to go with this discussion. It’s a change in direction and I don’t want to lose you. I want to focus on the issue I alluded to at the beginning of this article: self-editing creates writers who have thin skins.

They are happy, even proud, of what they’ve written, but have never subjected their work to the scrutiny of the eyes of a trained, professional editor. I am foolish enough to try to inject reason into some of these groups by making the comment “You don’t know what you don’t know.” You know? Your ability to edit your own work is limited by your knowledge, or lack thereof, of the rules of skillful writing. You could make the same grammatical mistakes over and over and not know it. No amount of self-editing is going to fix that. And your beta readers might not know any more than you do.

It is impossible for me, personally and professionally, to understand the attitude that doing everything you can do to make your work as close to perfect as it can be is unnecessary.

If a writer can’t afford to hire a professional editor, then this might not be the right time to publish.

Shop around. Just because one editor quoted you $1000 to edit your manuscript doesn’t mean that it is a reasonable quote or your only option. Investigate. Negotiate.

Writing Cannot Improve Without Critique

So, what I’ve done here is explore the “I can do it myself” and the “I can’t afford an editor right now” excuses. But I think there might be more to it. Some writers, even those who have already self-published, have never, even once, had a professional writer or editor read their work. They are content feeling they’ve cranked out a really good book; after all, their parents and friends love it. And this absence of listening to and accepting criticism is, in the long run, a barrier to ever improving as a writer. Ever. Your writing cannot improve if you do not allow more knowledgeable eyes to review it. Learning to accept and assimilate criticism for the betterment of your writing is crucial to becoming the finest writer you can be. There is no growth without objective scrutiny.

In Part 2, I will explore the many ways a writer can find helpful free writing critique. Learn from others and thicken your skin.

Memoir Theme is As Important As Plot

A horned bull in famous cave painting in Lascaux, France. Estimated to be approximately 20,000 years old..

UPDATED 1/8/21

A memoir is about something you know after something you’ve been through. The theme of a memoir answers the question “What’s it about?” Before you start to write, sum up your memoir in one sentence that answers this question. One sentence.

This paragraph is a combination of three crucial points I make in the Introduction to Memoir PowerPoint presentation I give locally. The definition of memoir— it’s about something you know after something you’ve been through—comes as a surprise to everyone in the audience at these presentations.

Why?

First, because most people think that memoirs and autobiographies are the same. They are not. A memoir is more like a novel than an autobiography. I discuss this in greater detail in my blog post With Creative Nonfiction, Reality Meets Storytelling. Second, because most people don’t understand the difference between theme and plot.

Do you?

A sample memoir theme is,

It’s about how my mother’s death from lung cancer at a young age caused me to quit smoking and become an anti-tobacco advocate.

The plot explains what happened. What actually happened. The facts. The details. The names, the dates, the places. But that is not the theme. The theme is how the author was changed by her mother’s death from lung cancer; a change that included quitting smoking and becoming an advocate for the anti-tobacco movement. The why of the story—the death of a loved one left you saddened but ultimately wiser and stronger, determined to make a change.

If I’ve already written (a bit) about this, why am I addressing it again? Because I specialize in teaching and editing memoir. I love the genre and I’m determined to help people understand that memoir isn’t autobiography. It’s way cooler and more interesting. But, as I’ve already said, I tell folks, before you start to write, sum up your memoir in one sentence that answers the question what’s it about?

Our Brains are Hardwired for Story Lessons

What has brought me back to this subject is, I’m reading Wired For Story by Lisa Cron. The subtitle is, The Writer’s Guide to Using Brain Science to Hook Readers from the Very First Sentence. This isn’t your average creative writing guide. The main contention of the book is that our human brains have evolved to tell stories to share information and experiences and to want to read or listen to these stories to learn about experiences we have not yet had ourselves. When an early Homo Sapien created a cave painting of a bull goring a man with his horns, it was meant to teach the next guy who moved in a life-saving lesson.

In the first two chapters, Cron works hard to make sure we understand the key concept of storytelling: our brains have evolved to want stories that teach us something. We don’t like chaos or confusion in our minds when we read. We want a problem posed and a problem solved. Even in fiction, our brains crave lessons. What problem is the protagonist facing? How will this problem be resolved? What lessons will the protagonist learn along the way? And, as Cron makes clear, this is not the plot—it is the theme.

Theme in Storytelling is Paramount

The theme, clearly defined and addressed, is more important than the minutia of the plot. Readers want a dilemma presented and triumphed over, because our brains still like to learn something from everything we read. A story that fails to do that will only leave readers frustrated and disappointed. Says Cron,

Since theme is the underlying point the narrative makes about the human experience, it’s also where the universal lies. The universal is a feeling, emotion, or truth that resonates with us all.

I have many pages to go in Wired For Story. But I’ve already learned a valuable lesson as an editor (see, Cron is right): as I do with teaching memoir, a client who is a writer of fiction must be able to answer the question “What’s it about?” with an understanding that I don’t want to hear the plot. I want to know the theme—what the protagonist will know after what the writer puts them through. If a writer can’t answer that question, they are not ready to begin writing.

[UPDATE 8/20/19: I feel the need to clarify Lisa Cron's point about theme vs. plot. She says in a later chapter that theme is not more important than plot; they are equal in importance, but not to be confused. An author should not write a story that uses the theme as the plot. Says Cron, "...your theme begets the story's tone, which begets the mood the reader feels.... Because as crucial as theme is, it is never stated outright; it always implied."]

Not a Weekend Project: How to Build an Author Platform, Part 2

Recently, author, teacher, and psychologist Terri Lyon wrote a blog for Strike The Write Tone on her experiences creating an author platform for her book What's On Your Sign? How to focus your passion and change the world. Part 1 is here. As promised, Part 2 discusses her evaluation of the effectiveness of her efforts to create an audience and generate sales.

Tracking Analytics

OK, I'm a numbers gal, so this part of building a platform was kind of fun for me. Seriously. But I love to help with numbers, too, so let me tell you what I did. You can copy it if you want.

Choose what you want to measure that will tell you whether your platform is growing. Here is what I chose and where I get the information:

• Average website visitors per day (Google Analytics)

• Website bounce rate (Google Analytics)

• Referrals to my website (Google Analytics)

• Page Speed (WordPress plugin)

• Website Grader

• Number of people on my mailing list (MailChimp)

• Facebook friends (available from your Facebook profile)

• Facebook engagement (Facebook Insights tool)

• Twitter followers (Twitter profile)

• Twitter impressions (Twitter analytics)

• LinkedIn connections (LinkedIn Profile)

• Number of public appearances per month (interviews, talks, workshops, etc.)

I teach basic statistics to graduate students, and Google Analytics overwhelms me. My tip: just use the basic dashboard information. You may get sophisticated enough to ask more detailed questions such as "why am I getting fewer clicks from South Americans reading with a screen resolution of 414 x 280?" Trust me, you can get that information, too.

Good grief, how much time is this going to take?

Spend 1 Hour on Social Media

I spend about an hour each morning on social media and networking. My social media include Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and LinkedIn. I follow people, answer questions, respond to comments, share articles, and praise excellent posts.

Keeping up with people I already know or want to meet is important, too, so I work on this every morning.

Finally, I check my websites to make sure they are working well. My blog is at Life at the Intersection and my book site is What's On Your Sign? Anyone who has a website knows that little things can send you down a rabbit hole of CSS, HTML, plug-ins, and metrics. This is just "Oh good, it is running and nothing is broken. People are still visiting. Yay!"

Spend 1 Hour Blogging

I spend an hour each day researching and writing blog posts. Since I know my schedule ahead of time, I save articles in a bookmark folder for that month's posts (this is a way not to lose those essential links when you have 4534 tabs open.)

Use Buffer to post automatically to all your social media platforms. Buffer has a free version, but I sprang (must contact my editor to see if sprang is a word) for the ability to schedule posts in the far future. [Editor’s note: Sprang is, in fact, the past tense of spring. Who knew?]

My blog posts automatically feed to my Amazon and Goodreads Author Pages. I post my blog as an article on LinkedIn.

Spend 2 Hours on Projects

In the afternoon, I focus for a few hours on something off this list. Some tasks need to be done. Otherwise, I just decide on based on my mood at that moment.

• New writing.

• Personal development.

• Website tweaking. This is where you go down those rabbit holes, solve a problem, then forget to write down how you did it. A year later you have to do the same thing. Sigh.

• Financial stuff (once a month).

• Analytics metrics update (once a month).

See, it's not that hard.

Summary

I'm at month 16 of my author platform. My evaluation shows excellent success in building some portions of my platform. It also shows some areas that need more attention.

It's been 7 months since I published. The evidence suggests that if I keep up my efforts, I will see more significant results 20 months from now.

But, darn it, I wish I'd started sooner. Perhaps it's not too late for you.

Resources

· A Definition of an Author Platform by Jane Friedman

· Google Alerts. Use this tool to set alerts on content you wish to follow.

· Feedly is a content manager for blogs and RSS feeds.

· Buffer. Manage your social media posts in one place.

Bio

Terri Lyon is the author of “What’s on Your Sign? How to focus your passion and change the world” and The What’s On Your Sign? Workbook.” Available where books are sold.

Teacher, Psychologist, Activist, Animal Lover.

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Visit Terri's website, whatsonyoursign.com