As a writer, you need to be challenged.
This can be hard to face. Challenged? What if whoever’s challenging me doesn’t like my work?
That will happen. Think of any great writing – any classic book – and there’ll be people who don’t like it. Opinions are subjective.
But that’s not the challenge we’re talking about.
We’re talking about somebody who’ll challenge where your writing might not be fulfilling its potential.
Now that could happen for any number of reasons.
Among them (and this is, by no means, an exhaustive list):
- clarity: is what you’re saying clear?
- overwriting: are you waffling?
- underwriting: is there something you haven’t explored deeply enough?
- repetition: have you repeated yourself, or are there words you repeatedly use?
- chronology: does the order of information make sense?
- characterisations: are they motivated and three-dimensional?
- causality: are contrivances and coincidences driving your plotting?
- plotting: is it sound?
- dialogue: is it realistic?
- realistic: does it maintain a suspension of disbelief in the universe it’s created?
- grammar, punctuation, spelling: are these correct?
There are other things, but this list should give you an idea.
The issues can stream independently, or they can interrelate, but ultimately, they all serve the same question:
Does your writing work?
And do you know what?
There will be things that don’t work – regardless of the care you took, the amount of times you went over it, or the experience you have.
That’s why we get feedback.
Feedback challenges us to look at our writing from a fresh perspective. As the author, we have all the answers. We know how the writing’s meant to function. We have all the information required. But that’s the problem. We can answer all those questions.
Readers don’t have us standing over their shoulder providing explanations whenever a query might arise.
Feedback allows us to address those potential issues.
In addressing those issues, we’re likely to identify our own bad habits. As we address them, we develop our craft. It doesn’t mean we’ll ever become infallible. Athletes who train for years and play hundreds of games can still make mistakes.
But we get better.
That’s unlikelier to happen when we exist in a bubble.
Put your writing out there. There are workshop groups. You might know other writers.
The only proviso is to ensure they’re people you can trust, and who will offer constructive feedback.