Common Creative Writing Critiques

Creative Writing Workshops can be extremely beneficial to a writer. Not only do you get feedback on your own work, you are able to read and be inspired by the work of your peers. Going into these workshops, you have to make sure your piece is in fighting form, so you can get specific and helpful critiques. Here’s a few of the most common criticisms I’ve received:

“This is cliché…”

This one you will hear a lot, especially if you are in a beginning writing class. It is no easy feat creating a completely original story after thousands of years of the written language. My advice is to steal from as many pieces as you can, not to the point of plagiarism of course. Taking guidance from those who came before you might be the smartest move you can make as a writer. If it is good enough for Billy Shakespeare, then it is good enough for you.

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“This must be a defamiliarized version of…”

Fan-fiction aside, I think defamiliarization is a great way to work off of and improve another author’s idea. Take the movie Hook: it follows the age-old story of Peter Pan, but by following new themes and creating a different version of the story, it becomes more relevant to a modern audience.

“Where is the chronic tension?”

Conflict is one of the most important parts of any story, and the chronic tension is what makes a story tick. Chronic tension is the over-arching, reoccurring problem in any story, and is often the crutch or the motivator for the protagonist. This is what sets the stakes high from the beginning. Without this central conflict, the themes go to waste.

“Where is the acute tension?”

The acute tension presents the pressing issues, and often acts to guide the main action in a story. It is very important and immediate and specificity is key. This allows a character to truly show off their problem-solving skills or lack thereof.

“This character needs to be more developed.”

Developing interesting and dynamic characters should be your main goal as a fiction writer. In today’s realm of fiction, character is king, and any slacking in this area can easily make a story fall flat. Characters need to change as the story progresses to maintain interest. A static character may be useful for an aside, but any good character needs to have some sort of growth.

With these critiques in mind, you should be able to edit your work and have an effective creative writing workshop experience.