Cuz Everybody Hurts....sometimes

So yesterday while at my chapter meeting one of our members gave a talk about "the five stages of critques", likening it to the five stages of grief. In case you don't know what they are, they're

1. denial
2. anger
3. sadness
4. reoranization (pick yourself up, dust yourself off...blah blah)
5. moving on

It was a nice mini program. Afterward, during the break, one of the members came to me and mentioned that I judged her manuscript in a contest last year and really trashed it. While one other judge gave her a perfect score of 75, I gave her a 30. She said my comments were mean and had she been a newbie writer, the comments would have made her think twice about writing. She then said "if you aren't published you shouldn't judge contests."  Okay....hold the phone! First, I AM PUBLISHED and have been since 2008 and I just recently launched my fourth book. Second, while my comments to anyone I critique can come across harsh (yes, I admit it), I always apologize up front and try to explain my reasons. I also say, it's only my opinion.

Now, since her comments to me came across a bit....mean as well, I decided to look up the story in question. The collection of entries I had to judge were in my 'sent' folder so I could still pull them up and I have to say after looking at the submission again and my comments...I STAND BY EVERY WORD.  This author is multi-published herself with an electronic publisher (like me), however in historical romance. This manuscript she entered in the contest was a contemporary....totally different kind of writing. 

Here is the closing comment I made on the entry:

MY SINCEREST APOLOGIES FOR THE LOW SCORES, BUT, INHO, THIS BOOK IS NOT READY FOR PULICATION.  WHILE YOU MAY HAVE A GOOD PREMISE FOR THIS STORY, I DON’T FEEL YOU’VE DEVELOPED IT ENOUGH. THERE IS TOO MUCH TELLING AND AUTHOR INTRUSION.  WATCH FOR THE OVERUSE OF ADVERBS.

I WOULD SUGGEST TAKING SOME CLASSES ON CRAFT. (RWA HAS SOME GREAT ONLINE CLASSES) THERE ARE ALSO SEVERAL AUTHORS WHO BLOG ON CRAFT, THAT YOU CAN LEARN FROM.

TAKE YOUR TIME WITH THE STORY AND CHARACTERS. BUILD THEM FROM THE GROUND UP.

BEST OF LUCK TO YOU.

That's not so bad, right?

Anyway, now that I know I'm right (hah) I can jump to step 5 and move on.

So, tell me, do you ever get nasty critiques? (of course, everyone does...I've had some doozies!)  How do you handle them?


One more thing....if you're visiting before November 30 you should know...my novel House of Cards is free at Amazon. Just click on this link.