Story Woes

As always, join the Mibba discord! We’re lonely in here.

Anyway, this is probably gonna be more of a rant blog. Let me begin.

I’ve been in a critique group since July. There are five of us and every week, one person takes a turn to submit a 5,000 word piece to be critiqued. I’ve enjoyed my time with them and I feel like the weekly discussion about writing really helps me... but that’s just about the only thing that works.

Like, when critiquing someone’s story, you give feedback on both the good and the bad aspects of it. You don’t want to point out too much of one unless you have to, because at that point it’s not going to be as helpful.

They question every. single. aspect. of my writing. Every single one. Why did this character do this? Why did you do this? Like, sometimes it gets to the point where they will ask a question that immediately gets answered. (I’m not even kidding - today someone commented “I wish we got to see her reaction” WHEN LITERALLY THE NEXT SENTENCE WAS HER REACTION.

UGH.

They never tell me what I do well or what works. The Land of Infinite Whispers is a dark fantasy, borderline horror in some parts. They never once commented on what they like, what’s working, etc. I actually once got told by someone that, “No matter how you do this, I’m never going to like it.” (In reference to a certain narrative decision I made). That’s! not! helpful!

I don’t know what I’m doing well, what is good, what I should do more of. It’s really disheartening. I make a point to point out at least one thing I like, AT LEAST, but a lot of my critiques do include comments on what’s working and what’s going well. None of theirs do.

It just makes me feel like shit. Like my story isn’t worth it if it’s not working. Ugh. I guess I just gotta power through.