Ever write something and you aren’t sure if it’s good, so you’re worried about sharing it with others? Everyone feels that way. Despite your fears, you should make sure someone always looks over your work to get back some criticism.
Criticism can be scary. You give someone your work and they complete judge you on it. What’s scarier than that? But you have to look at the positives of criticism. This way, you’ll be fully able to understand how it can help you!
If seeking criticism is new to you, the person reading your work should be someone you trust, like a close friend who will be honest with you. Starting off with a friend will get you used to having your work read over and receiving feedback on it. Slowly start asking other people if they are willing to read what you wrote. Once you feel more comfortable with others reading your work, you can go to advisors or even your professors.
But the question is still there – why should you seek out criticism? Well, there are many answers to that question, like how getting feedback can help make your ideas stronger. Maybe the person who read your work can improve it with ideas of their own. Maybe there was something missing in your story that you didn’t even realize. Having someone else read your work can make it easier to get your message across.
It also makes you think more. When people read what you do, they’re going to have questions. You might even get questions you don’t have the answer to, and that’s okay! It just shows that you needed the feedback. By having a conversation about your work, it can really help you to find key ideas and themes for what you’re writing. More importantly, it helps you to be specific about your topic. The more details you have, the more life gets put into your work.
It can even make you more confident! Showing that you are willing to let other people read what you’ve done shows major confidence. You’re proud of what you’ve created and you want others to see it. You know that they are going to be giving you feedback and you’re ready for it because you know it will only help you to improve.
Criticism is meant to help you improve but getting feedback can be stressful and difficult; just know it’s that way for everyone. However, there are so many positives for why you should do it. It isn’t just for writing, but for anything you do that you want feedback on. So go out there and get criticized!