A critique group of writers aren’t interested in hurting your feelings, they’re interested in helping you and each other write the best stories for their readers.
And remember that you know your story but your reader doesn’t. So if another writer critiques your book and doesn’t understand something in your story then there is probably something there to fix.
I know when I was getting my first novel reviewed, I had reviewer after reviewer tell me my prologue didn’t make a lot of sense. But they had to be wrong because that was my favorite chapter. It was so good.
It took probably the 30th person to say to me, I don’t get your prologue for me to finally be willing to look at it and change it. And it was the best thing I could do for my book.
So there’s a clue – if you have more than one person giving you feedback on the same thing, it’s probably something that needs to be fixed.
If you have to change your favorite bit, if you can’t delete it, consider saving it in a file somewhere.
And what about bad reviews? My first bit of advice is to not read them. But sometimes you can’t help it, right? My first bad review, it was actually 4 stars but they said that I write as deep as a puddle of water. I laughed when I saw that.
But think of this way, if they hated your book, they aren’t your target market. For example, on my murder mystery Gamble of the Gods someone said – this is no Tony Hillerman. Which is perfect. Yes it has a Navajo character, but it isn’t a Hillerman mystery so that review is going to warn away readers who might think it is.
So if you just can’t help yourself and you read the bad reviews, keep in mind that these are not your target readers. And every review still helps your algorithm. And consider having fun with them – share the meanest review to your fans. I know I did and suddenly my fans who hadn’t given me a review were giving me a review because they were mad about the negative one.
Look at these situations in a different light and it will help you keep your sanity.
Show notes:
Get Amy River’s new book Stumble and Fall here: https://www.amyrivers.com/