I have been editing my most recent story. It’s taking me a while since this editing has caused me to have to do some rewrites. A while back I had an editor and writer friend do a line by line of my book and she tore it apart.

That was a good thing.

I knew it was a good thing because I wanted to make myself a better writer, but I realized that I didn’t always think this way. So I broke it down to four things that made me realize a good critique was good for me.

1. Objectivity

The person reading through your book (and it doesn’t matter if its a beta reader or editor) is probably reading your book for the first time. They don’t have the story mapped out in their head. And they certainly don’t know all the characters. They will realize if you are not being consistent or missed something. They have objectivity so their feedback is important.

2. Consistency checks

It took me a couple months to write the rough draft of my novella. During that time I changed a couple characters eye color, a minor characters job, and made all the adults a little too accepting of the strange and supernatural. Having someone read it and comb through my novella allowed me to get a deep, objective look at my story. It was needed. I may not have noticed some of them myself because I’m too close to the story. To me the story exists as a larger, more intimate story. But to my readers, they just see: so and so’s eyes turn brown?

3. It isn’t personal

Any feedback you get you have to understand that a good editor and beta reader is doing it with your best interest in mind. Any criticism you get from your editor or beta reader should be constructive. Anything negative is meant to help you not harm you and that is where a lot of us have issues. No one WANTS to hear criticism, but odds are, your first draft isn’t perfect.

4. You will improve

The feedback is there to help you get better. Constructive criticism should tell you where you are being inconsistent, where things doesn’t make sense, where characters change motivation and so much more. Taking that feedback, you learn what other people look for in books and maybe even what you thought you had explained well, but did not.

I have learned so much from having my novella edited. I learn I use “said” and “replied” too much. I learned that I should probably keep character sheets because I kept changing eye colors. I learned that my background characters need to actually be more human. And, interestingly enough, that I need to use my other sense more as I write.

Having this experience has truly made me a better writer and I'm glad I went through it.