Just read my feedback from Crumey, and I'm still smarting from the 30 line ass-kicking my story and I have just received. Don't get me wrong: I need criticism, I like criticism...it's necessary to the craft, but when your Prof writes 'Overall, I was disappointed by the lack of specificity' (in a 1000 word piece about a man who wants to become invisible??!?!), you can't help but bash your head against your keyboard. Oh, and TWICE he calls my protagonist 'a cackling mad genius', which I was going for but he didn't seem to like, so I'm not sure if that's personal taste or a nod at the general literary trend (the guy knows what he's talking about after all). There's a lot of other critical stuff he wrote in what I'm now going to term 'Rob's Literary Kick to the Crotch', and I really wouldn't mind, but my gripe is that there was very little encouragement.
Anyway, enough of my moaning: I'm interested if anyone else got rather tough feedback, or whether I'm just a bad writer who doesn't realise it.
All the best,
Rob
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6 comments:
I've already told Robert what I think about this, but for the rest of you: I'm beginning to get the impression that Crumey doesn't know what he's talking about.
Okay, that's slightly harsh. He's a bloody published author for Christ's sake and he won that huge prize. BUT... he seems determined to criticise and not to encourage. Rob's story was brilliant, and the criticism it sounds like was in the most part irrelevant. Crumey strikes me as a teacher who doesn't like it when students are better than he expects them to be.
Rob, I love your work. I've never heard anything of yours that I haven't been gripped by. You have a very strong voice and style and write with such wit and intelligence. I really wouldn't let this undermine you. You've a 78 God damn it! Just hitch up your sexy shorts and know your worth.
On another note, since we're on the topic, I was really pleased with my feedback. To be honest, I was expecting a slating and instead found it extremely helpful and encouraging. He showed me what was wrong a section that I knew wasn't quite right and couldn't put my finger on, and he suggested how I might fix that. He was also very positive and encouraging about what he liked and even suggested how the piece might be developed into a book. All in all it was incredibly positive.
So, I feel like I dodged a bullet this week which will no doubt hit me square between the eyes next week.
I think his head is a "strangely detached and affectless piece" if he thinks mine was meant to be serious. I know it was crap. It's not supposed to be bloody Shakespeare! I wrote it the night before in ten minutes! I was under the impression we were looking for scene, summary, & pause, not publishable work...
And yours was actually good!
Something tells me that he's looking for book ideas and we're frustrating him.
At this stage (MA program) I think we all have a fairly good idea of what our strengths are in our writing. I've almost come to feel that I would rather have criticism (which I got) than positive feedback. No, I don't want to be pounded into the ground with negativity, but if it's constructive, well...that's really what this program is all about, learning how to make our writing stronger.
I'll be the first to admit, I don't like hearing my work has tons of flaws, but i'm trying to grow "thick skin" as Marianne said Tuesday night.
I'm totally with you Nicole, I would much rather have the criticism, which is also what I got. I just found that it was constructive criticism that was valuable and could help move my piece forward. This week was encouraging for me, next week will no doubt be different.
I already have a well developed thick skin from being an actress where it's constant criticism and not always constructive. Maybe I'm just used to it.
So, this week I've nothing to complain about.
I've been slightly harsh on Crumey...
I've just read back the feedback that I got and his comments are actually pretty relevant and useful. Maybe I didn't notice that before because the piece I sent to him is one I'm not particularly bothered about. Wish I'd sent him something different now.
Maybe I just need a thicker skin.
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