Internal and External Critics

Few weeks ago, I discovered a very nice website, called 'Ikvertel.nl' ('Itell.nl'). The website is a great initiative to promote the writing of short stories. It is an ongoing writing contest as well. Writers, 12-99 years old, can send in one short story every three months. Readers can comment on the stories and rate them. At the end of each quarter, a top five of best stories will be announced on the website. At the end of the year, a book with 30 short stories, selected by a professional jury, will be published.

To participate in this contest, I edited a story I wrote nine years ago. It is a story about the night my mother died, something I wrote immediately the morning after. It is very much a story about the tears and smiles that go hand in hand when you lose someone you love so dearly. The story was published on the website and I asked about 40 people to comment on it. Most reactions gave my ego a great boost. Some people (who did not know my mother...) even had to cry while reading it, so they told me. That is wonderful, considering the fact that you want to be able to touch people with what you have written. However, there were two people who really criticized the story on its content.

I had not been able to touch them. It had become too much of an enumeration of facts and events. There was not enough emotion (left) in the story... Even though you have to swallow a few times before letting it sink in, this was exactly the kind of criticism I was looking for! It made me focus on the story again to analyze what I will be able to do better next time. Even though my internal critic talks to me in a loud voice all the time while I am writing, as a writer you are still very much wandering around in your own small world. If your goal is to improve yourself, you have to be able to embrace these criticisms and make it work for you instead of against you. So, do swallow a few times, but make sure to let the external critic speak as well! Love, M.