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When to Stop Taking Feedback
Critiques of your writing are vital — to a point
How do you know when you’re done writing a book?
Or a story, essay, or article? Anyone who writes seriously — meaning, writing with an aim to publish — knows that the answer to that question is not when you reach “The End.” Yes, your first draft is an achievement worth celebrating, but as Ernest Hemingway famously said,
The first draft of anything is shit.
You’ve been told this, much less directly, since you were writing five-paragraph essays in seventh grade. It’s one thing you learned in school that is in fact true. Writing for publication is like tackling an obstacle course. Completing your first draft means you’re gotten over one of the major hurdles, but there are still monkey bars, a rope climb, an inverted wall, and plenty of rough ground to cover before you reach the finish line.
You need eyes on your work before you send it out into the world
Sometimes, if you’re writing short-form and are under a tight deadline, those eyes might have to be yours. The trick, in that case, is to give your piece a rest — even half an hour or less can help, if you distract yourself effectively with another task or something…
