One of the hardest points to reach as a writer is the point at which you’re willing to put your work in front of people and are not seeking validation. In other words, when you’re ready for real opinions rather than pats on the back.
The praise of family and friends is the bane of the aspiring writer, though too often the aspiring writer does not realize this. Your mother and your close friend tell you your work is good, and you believe it because that’s what you want to hear. However, praise for its own sake does you more harm than good. It blinds you to flaws in your own work and gives you an elevated sense of where you are in your development as a writer.
Far harder than letting family or friends read your work is presenting it to complete strangers, or people you know will be forthright with you rather than offer a glowing assessment just because it’s the nice thing to do. This is where many starting writers falter. When I talk with other people who write, or who want to write, and they express hesitancy at showing people their work I always encourage them to do so. It’s a huge, huge thing to reach the point where you feel ready to show people your work, and once you start doing it you’ll either flee from writing in fear or start looking at your own work in a different way. In a BETTER way. A way that forces you to improve.
That awareness is invaluable, and you will not get it if you only solicit the kind comments of loved ones.
When I first began writing semi-regularly as an adult, I didn’t write with readers in mind. Never considered how this material would look on the printed page, I just wrote and loved it and thought, “Aren’t I so talented?” When the day came that I looked at it from the perspective of someone reading the work it hit me just how crap it all was. I realized I’d never put that rubbish in front of people. I wouldn’t read it, and I was the guy writing it!
It’s not a matter of not writing what you love. Always write what you love! It’s a matter of getting outside yourself and seeing your work as others might see it. Of finding the ability to be truly objective about your work. Nothing helps you get into that mindset better than having an audience who is willing to be honest — and brutally so, if necessary. It can be hard to get to the point where you can accept criticism, but if you want to improve (and ultimately succeed), you MUST be willing to do so. Join a writing group. Establish some online acquaintances who will critique your work. Post your work to forums like Absolute Write.
Having an audience forces you to take a stronger editorial hand with yourself. Or it should, at least. So do it.
So very true.
With the musical I'm putting together, I poured a ton of stuff into it during the writing process — every clever rhyme and turn of phrase I could come up with just got thrown in there, on the logic that, well, the more cleverness, the better!
Then I had the cast together for a first read-through, and it was three and a half hours long!
By the end, it was agonizing, watching a dozen actors (and a choreographer and costumer and stage manager, etc.) all sitting there, shifting in their seats, cracking their backs, desperately wanting this thing to be done.
But it was the best thing that could've happened, really. It was the first time I truly understood why Hemingway said that thing about "butchering your babies." If you don't do it, your audience will want to butcher *you*.
— Jason (Ocean Doot)
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