I am one of those people. You know, a person stuck in Niceville. I want to give helpful feedback to my colleagues, but worry about coming off too negatively, about hurting people’s feelings or discouraging someone else from writing.

This isn’t a bad problem to have. It means we’re thinking about the person behind the words so we can give constructive feedback while lifting others up. We just need to change the way we think about critiquing.

When we’re in the midst of writing, when we’ve poured our heart and soul into a piece of prose, it can be very difficult to see everything that’s happening. Is one of your characters a little too flat? Is the setting hitting all the senses? Is the middle dragging?

Distance is crucial to editing and rewriting, and another set of eyes can be a great asset. In fact, one of the things we’re hoping our classes give you is a sense of community, a group of people who you trust to read your work and comment, who will share this journey with you.

Find the rest at Storyville.