Character Week: Pride is a giant wall keeping the bad writers out

I request feedback from a host of different critics. Some are writers themselves. Some are simply good readers. Others are aliterate and rarely interested in reading any damned thing, let alone my damned thing. And do you know what? Those aliterate readers have often identified serious problems in my work. The more you gather feedback, the more you learn that even the least evolved book nerds can spot problems accurately.

Nobody will ever be able to teach you to write. This is not a skill as learnable as plumbing or lawyering. It requires you to find something vibrant and visceral inside yourself. You can read good writing. You can identify bad writing habits. You can even learn writing tools, but none of these things can turn you into a writer. You must achieve that on your own.

You can only get there if you understand how your readers interpret your text. This requires humility. The reader is usually right, so if you receive criticism, humility will help you to internalise what they tell you. The grandest goal of this process is preempting how your readers interpret your work before you even complete your first draft, and you can only achieve that by listening.

Pride is a giant wall keeping the bad writers outside. If you want to pass through it, you must develop a relationship with your readers and their feedback. They didn’t crit you because they failed to interpret what you wrote. They criticised you because your writing wasn’t easy to interpret.

In the rescue space, there are no bad dogs, only bad handlers, and the same principle applies here. There are few bad readers, but many bad writers. What’s worse? I guarantee you that you will occasionally be a bad writer. We all are, so we must all stare our pride down until it runs away.

Humility is one of the most important tools for turning your talent into viable art. Defensiveness is a reflex response to criticism, but it will separate you from the most important person in your writerly pursuit: Your reader.