1 hour ago
I used to do a lot of intensive critiques, but over time I felt it was probably too much, a lot of it subjective. I was worried that I was giving them the equivalent of a line reading in acting.
I also started to notice the things that actually mattered when I received critique were just knowing what was hitting, what wasn’t hitting. Mostly, I was paying attention to the lines no one commented on, because if they were just transitional filler, I wanted to fix them.
So it affected how I think about critique. I’m not even sure what method I’d use these days to approach poems with the goal of being helpful to the writer.
I also started to notice the things that actually mattered when I received critique were just knowing what was hitting, what wasn’t hitting. Mostly, I was paying attention to the lines no one commented on, because if they were just transitional filler, I wanted to fix them.
So it affected how I think about critique. I’m not even sure what method I’d use these days to approach poems with the goal of being helpful to the writer.
The secret of poetry is cruelty.--Jon Anderson