Yes...Another Rant Book (OLD discontinued)

People Who can't handle critiques

Just as a quick sidenote, a "critic" is someone who looks over your work and gives feedback. A "critique" is that said review. Apparently people don't know the difference. Anyway, that's not the issue here. The issue is people who flip a bitch when they get a bad review on their story. Now, I'm not talking about the douchebags:

"Your story is a complete and utter atrocity. Why are you even writing at all? You've wasted my time and yours by writing this sack of crap. You should just quite writing and go work at McDonald's."

^That is a douchebag. They aren't real critics and deserve all the backlash and reports they get. I'm talking about the people who can't deal with constructive criticism:

"There are some problems here. So and so in the plot doesn't make sense. Also you said here that this is one thing, but then you changed it again without explanation. Keep your plot flow consistent."

^That is an actual review. This critic is legitimately trying to help you improve your work. It's ridiculous when I hear about people flipping out over constructive criticism, especially when they were the ones that asked for the damn review in the first place! How do these people expect to improve their stories if they think every critic that points out a problem with their writing is out to get them? If they thought their book was so high and mighty, it makes no sense that they would even ask for a review. 

Now I get it. Hearing about issues in your story hurts. It's your baby. You sit there (if you actually care about writing that is) spend months and months trying to make it the best thing ever and hope it's successful. Your first in-depth critique will be pretty rough. But if you want it to be the best thing ever, you have to learn to deal with harsh reviews. Good critics don't just sit there and think of ways they can crush you. They're search for what's wrong so that they can point it out to you and leave it up to you to fix it. And guess what? If you don't agree with the critic, you don't have to take their advice. Plus, a critic is one person. Get more than one review. Different things work for different people. It's your story. You can take their review however you want.

So what if you do agree with the critic? Their critique points out your worst nightmares. You know what you can do? Fix the problems. It's wattpad guys, your story's not set in stone. You can change stuff. And if more than one critic touches on the same issue, you should most definitely fix it. More often than not, they'll point out something you missed. The whole beauty of wattpad is to get feedback on your stories. How many published authors have that luxury? Sure they most likely have professional editors, but we get feedback from fellow writers and readers. 

Besides, getting tough reviews will be good pratice. Writers get rejected, their stories may flop, they have picky editors, or they have any other number of issues. They have to develop a thick skin. Critiques aren't personal attacks. They're not telling you that you suck at writing or that you story's horrible (although it could be, who knows?). They're just informing you that you have some work to do. It's not the end of the world if they tell you something's wrong with your story. Everyone has something wrong with their story. No one's perfect and no one's story is perfect. You really think even the most well-renowned writers have absolutely no problems with their books at all? They're not writing gods, they're just really good authors. That still doesn't mean their stories are perfect. 

Most importantly, if you get a bad review, don't just quit writing. That's not what the critic's intending and I highly doubt that's what you want either. Suck it up, look over the critique again, and straighten things out. Think of the harsh review as a guide. It's not a wall of insults. It's advice. Again, they're trying to help you. There's nothing worse than when I hear about critics getting bullied because they critiqued someone's work and the author didn't like that. Really people? Critics shouldn't have to fear giving reviews. If you want your story to get better, take good advice, toughen up, and keep writing.