How to tell your Friend their Vocal Article is Terrible

If you don't have anything nice to say.....

....come sit next to me.

Alice Roosevelt Longworth

It has already started; that quiet roar before the predictable outrage starts. I realise I am poking a hornets nest. I have a provocative title and have opened with a controversial quote.

I mean one was not raised that way, Mother always said...

If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all

Come on, now is that really good advice?

And when was the last time you listened to Mother.

I mean in a writing community should we really be pulling our punches.

I generally write bad fiction. I started in my forties about five months ago on a different website. The truth is I know my work is low brow. I know I dislike purple prose (the floweriest of flowery descriptions). I am also proud of my stories. I know I think my work is better than it actually is, but I am learning. I am starting to improve myself and learn a new craft and why not. Henri Rousseau, a post impressionist painter was a banker and a tax collector until he was my age. He started exhibiting his paintings later in life and received no recognition until he was in his fifties.

I know my work needs to improve. I have every piece I write proof read by another person, I am relearning my grammar for the first time in twenty five years. I still get lost with tenses. I even post my short fiction in writing circles before I publish it here. This is so I can change and edit until I am happy. Learning how to take criticism is improving my craft from being average low brow short fiction to better low brow short fiction. I must add I never want to write high brow short fiction, just great pulp.

I am the person who enjoys a cheeseburger over a fillet steak.

Now, I hate people just saying what is good about my piece, it is not always pleasant and has taken time to learn how to do it but I want to know your opinion. I want to know what you really think not what you think I want to hear. Opinions are like bellybuttons we all have one. So don't be shy.

Although I do prefer Dirty Harry's variation of the phrase, in the 1988 film 'The Dead Pool'.

Opinions may feel like they are now weaponised but the truth is they carry the weight that you place on them. You have two choices in how you deal with them. You can follow Caitlyn's Page insight.

Opinions are like onions. They spell similarly, usually have many layers, and tend to make people cry.

Or you can follow Steve Hughes advice

Being offended is subjective. It has everything to do with you as an individual or a collective, or a group or a society or a community. Your moral conditioning, your religious beliefs. What offends me may not offend you. And you want to make laws about this? I’m offended when I see boy bands for god sake.

I don't have to accept your insight but listening to it and reflecting on what I have created will only help me to improve. If your opinion comes from a bitter, dark and cold place and has no substance, what does it say about me if I give that opinion validity. If someone does not understand the subtleties of a piece, maybe I have not explained it well and need to look over that section again. Also be aware there are lots of people out there who are just idiots, and they have opinions too, so file them exactly where you think they need to go.

I want my friend to read my piece and say, "Hey listen that bit's stupid and the ending is contrived and weak, go write it again and bring it back to me." That is a real friend, someone trying to help me to be the best. The problem is if you do that in the wider world you will upset a lot of people. Then you will be spending more time writing responses in comments on Facebook than working on your next piece. So here is my guide to telling your friend that their Vocal Article is not working without bursting their bubble and having them never write anything again.

The Problem

A lot of writers think they are like the man in the video below. Their idea is gold and everyone can see that. They are two minutes away from that idea that opens doors and writes endless cheques.

If you think you are always right but do not get feedback from anyone, how do you know? If the feedback is purely positive because that is the nice thing to do, are you looking at your work through a distorted lens? How do you really know what you are doing is truly good? Listening and acting on those honest views will tell you what works and what can be improved. Use that information to change – sometimes we have to go through an uncomfortable process to find ourselves stronger and in a better healthier place.

The trouble with most of us is that we’d rather be ruined by praise than saved by criticism.

– Norman Vincent Peale

We live in a world where the following video's behaviour is becoming more acceptable. We are moving into unhealthier places. We believe that every comment is armour piercing and the harbinger of endless catastrophes.

The Little Black Book Challenge has had a lot of people try fiction for the first time. Here I am doing the opposite someone who writes fiction having a go at the other. Both are crafts that take practice. They take real work. To just type a piece without reviewing it you are going to miss things. We are too close and too involved in our own creations; we are emotionally attached and unrealistically biased.

“Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”

- Neil Gaiman

Criticism is rarely a personal attack. So respond accordingly. It can potentially start the right dialogue.

"OK, so you'd like to see this part changed – what would you say is the main thing that should be different?"

"I understand why you see it that way. Let me tell you why I did it this way."

"I've thought about what you said and I think I am going to do this..."

Criticism can be a collaboration it can have someone else invest in your work and help you to shape it in the right way and carry it over the finish line. You have a duty to your craft and to yourself to get it right. Writers are pretty solitary characters and it is not always possible to get our pieces read before we upload them but there are a number of social media groups geared towards Vocal that will help you review your last piece so your next piece can be even better. My favourite group is Vocal Creators Saloon and you can find it here.

How to Critique

DO NOT blow smoke up their arse. No writer in their right mind wants to only hear positive things about their work. That's a narcissist and they are out there.

DO find some nice things to say. A lot of people critiquing will just list what is wrong, believe that this is the help you need and they are doing you a good deed. Writer's have sensitive souls so you need to treat them as such.

The simple truth is for everybody telling you something there are ten people reading your work and thinking the same thing. This is your creation you need to know what is happening with it in the shadows.

Also for every criticism more often than not there is an equal and opposite opinion telling you to do something else.

If you cannot handle the analysis do not seek it out.

Because opinions are only words and only have power if you let them.

Listen to Claes Bang in the next clip. Let him explain to you something important about placing all your trust in any critical voice.

Build Break Build

What seems like a lifetime ago I used to knock on doors to get myself through college, selling vacuum cleaners. 100% commission sales. I did not last long. If I did not sell anything I did not get paid. The number of hours I spent cleaning carpets for people in their own houses meant nothing unless I made that sale. The vacuum cleaners were very expensive so in the pitch I had to hide all the negative information between two pieces of positive information. We called the technique build, break, build.

That is what you should you do when you offer advice to your friend about their latest article.

I loved what you did to set up the opening scene the descriptions were wonderful. It felt like I was there. (BUILD)

The opening dialogue however did feel flat, you need to make it come alive. Use contractions in the text to make it feel realistic. (BREAK)

Because the twist at the end is excellent and all that added realism is just going to make that pay off increase exponentially. (BUILD)

If you put it all together it hardly feels like a single negative thing has been said.

Language

There is a certain use of words that educators in some parts of the world now use to assist children with their studies. Feedback today has to be a positive thing, pages full of crosses and phrases like 'must try harder' are now out of fashion.

The first one that is used is WWW. What Went Well.

What Went Well in your article was the images you had sourced, they really enhanced the text.

This is then used with EBI. Even Better If.

I feel the images would be Even Better If you changed that last colour photo so that they were all in black and white and created a strong visual theme through your work. If you want I can tell you how to do it using a photo editor.

Conclusion

Learning to critique or analyse other peoples work has great potential to enhance your own work.

If you walk through an art gallery it is not important to like every painting hanging on the walls. It is important to understand why they have been chosen and why they are significant. With regular challenges on Vocal covering a host of different topics you can see what works and is important in different facets and areas of writing. The challenges are your clients, giving you a brief to follow. The more you understand what works the better support you can give your friends, the better skills you will develop and in turn benefit your own craft.

So go out today and tell your friend how terrible their last piece was. The trick and skill you need to remember is; can you do it without them noticing. Tread carefully and try not to burst too many bubbles, it will take a little practice.

See that was not as bad as you thought it would be.

If you still want that practice feel free to take apart some of my low brow, bad fiction here.

You should also find some of my posts on the Vocal Facebook groups.

I wish you all a fantastic week and hope you all find buddies to tear your work to pieces so you can build yourselves back up again; stronger and fiercer than ever.