One of the hardest things in life is taking advice.
There are many reasons we don’t want to take advice. The most common is:
THEY ARE WRONG.
Also commonly phrased as:
THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY’RE TALKING ABOUT
But even if you feel that way about advice given, especially if you asked for the advice from a peer or reader, you should look at why that advice is being given.
The why will help you understand whether or not that advice is worth taking.
When I first started writing scripts for short films, I’d exchange them with actors. I’ll never forget the one that was returned to me laden with curse words. Every line of dialogue had at least one. Sometimes multiple, with barely a word between them.
–-Not that curse words don’t have their proper place and time–
I threw out all that person’s changes. How could they be right about anything if their answer was to add the ‘f’-word to everything.
Later on, I learned the actor was a huge fan of Tarantino films, and it suddenly clicked. It wasn’t the f-word they wanted, it was the edge and wit. They just didn’t know how to do that because they were not a writer.
When you know where someone is coming from you can view their remarks through the proper lens.
It’s taken me a long time, but from my pool of early readers, I believe I know where everyone is coming from. And when I ask for a critique, I generally get back what I expected. I know what they’ll pick at–and when they don’t it means I did something right.
Of my 3 main early readers, I’ll sometimes send one a story first because I know they’ll help me get it to where the next reader will have less problems, or I’ll send it to the one that I think will tear it apart last–that way I don’t get entirely discouraged.
The thing with advice from others is that it can be a great tool to gauge your confidence. If you understand why they are saying something, maybe it reveals something you left out, maybe you didn’t ‘earn’ a moment in the story.
There is always some form of disconnect from what’s in your mind and what you wrote. People will react differently to lines. Trust their reaction.
Always think about who your reader is.
Interested in my thoughts on writing, well there’s more from the past months, but look for new WRITING TIPS every LAST WEDNESDAY of EVERY MONTH.
WELCOME TO THE JIREVERSE 