Writers, Go Get Criticized

The Best Thing I Learned in College

The most valuable skill I learned in college was not one that I was expecting to learn. Naturally, I expected to learn how to write in a creative writing program. And I did, but I also learned a skill that I did not expect: how to be criticized. It sounds odd, but I came to discover that learning how to handle criticism well and how to process it in a productive way is one of the most effective ways that a writer can understand their own writing and improve it quickly.

I was not very good at handling criticism when I started. I first experience a group critique in my first semester of college. When I presented the story, the conversation turned very quickly to the story’s issues, and I remember a sinking feeling as the class took their turns pointing out its flaws. As the critiques piled on and I hid behind my computer taking notes, I began to feel bad about my story and my writing. After class, I had to find a bench at a quiet part of campus and take a few breaths to settle down.

In retrospect, it was no big deal. No story is perfect anyway, and this was an intro creative writing class, so bringing in shabby stories was expected. Everyone received plenty of constructive criticism. In a one-on-one, the teacher actually later told me that my story was one of the better ones in the class. I also want to emphasize that the workshop members were kind-hearted and constructive. This was more of an internal feeling. But to me, the feeling was real.

This was a new experience for me. My writing had never been tried in a group setting before, as I never really shared the stories I wrote in high school. So having my work tried like this gave me a lot of anxiety, and it quickly led to the development of the imposter syndrome that I felt pretty intensely in my early days in college. If I couldn’t even write a good story, did I really belong in any sort of creative writing program? Wouldn’t it be better if I just picked something safer and kept my writing to myself? Surely, I wasn’t cut out for being a writer. After all, everyone else there was a better writer than me.

Thankfully, I didn’t give into these voices. On the contrary, I had a shift in perspective that proved to be an important aspect of my development as a writer. As part of that intro class, the teacher has us submit a revised draft of the same story we had workshopped as one of the final assignments. I was reluctant to dig back into all of that criticism and the mire of emotions I associated it with. But in the name of keeping my grades up, I eventually did so. I mined all of the feedback that I received from both the teacher and the students, and I used it to develop a plan of attack to fix the flaws and improve the story. Once I did so, I came to realize that their criticism helped me understand my own story better. And in doing so, it also served as an important tool to make it better.

That was when I first became aware of how valuable criticism is for improving my work. This experience did not make me stop dreading workshops right away, nor did it instantly dispel my imposter syndrome. But it did give me a new perspective on criticism, and I began to employ this perspective moving forward.

As I went to more workshops and put more of my stories at the mercy of my classmates, I learned to value the criticism I received. Not only that, but I actually began to seek it out. The positive feedback was still important as well, but I reminded myself that the constructive feedback would be the main thing I refer to when I go to revise my work, and was thus the key to making it better. As I continued to employ this technique, I became more and more prepared both to handle the emotional stress of receiving criticism and to formulate that criticism in a constructive way that improves my writing. Eventually, criticism stopped being a scary indictment of my ability to write (in reality, it never was!) and instead became a learning opportunity.

In short, by learning how to value and embrace criticism as an opportunity for learning and improvement, I was able to grow my skills as a writer while also keeping my self-doubt in check. To this day, I consider this the most valuable lesson I learning in college, and it’s the best piece of advice I can give to any writers starting out. Writing is not perfectible, so there’s always new things to learn and new opportunities for improvement. Embrace the process!