by Chris McMahon
I am busy re-drafting my new SF novel Foreign Elements at the moment. I find working through critique comments nerve-wracking, particularly when they impact on the story structure. On the one hand I hate any sort of criticism of my little ‘baby’, on the other hand, once I’ve settled my own mind about the applicability or usefulness of the comments, I love to be challenged.
For me, that is the upside of the critique. It’s the one trait of mine that is equally useful as an engineer and a writer – I love solving problems.
Once I can actually battle my way through the mental gymnastics of dissecting and analysing the feedback objectively, and agree something needs to be changed it’s like a switch is flicked. Immediately all my creative energies are focussed. Knowing that there are problems with the story opens up the doors to new ideas. Then it’s just down to hammering a wedge into the story and nailing on a few new planks – plenty of time to sand it down and get it all smooth later.
Do you enjoy solving problems in your manuscript-under-development? Or is it just pain all the way?
Mad Genius Club 
3 responses to “Jigsaw Pieces”
It wasn’t due to a critique but I did rather enjoy solving a sticky writing problem today. I seemed not to be able to get going even though I pretty much knew what was supposed to happen all the way to the end, including a twist but I just couldn’t start. I usually fell like starting is the easy part. (Though bad starts may be why they don’t generally go on to the middles.)
Today I decided to just write out everything that was happening, who it was happening to, and what they thought about it and the world. I think I know what I was doing wrong now. This realization is enjoyable and the note writing process was enjoyable too because it felt effective, it felt good.
Knowing the problem is there is painful. The feeling of progress toward a solution isn’t painful at all.
Critique can be painful, but I think that genuinely helpful critique is less painful.
It could be that in addition to having to hear about your ugly baby, a critique is painful because they usually require so much sifting through and evaluation before they’re useful.
Hi, Synova. I think you’re right – the fun thing about solving something is knowing you are homing in on the solution. There is kind of three phases – one when you realise the problem, then there is a phase of setting the whole thing up in your head. That can be sort of uncomfortable, but its more just stretching the brain in new directions. Once you are on the hunt – that is fun.
I always find critique a challenge. I need to mentally prepare myself for open critiques in groups. The worse thing about it is the time you waste chasing red-herrings!