Recently, I've been beta'ing a story of a friend. She loves it when I'm completely ruthless and tell her, without any pretense, what's bad and what's not.
I, myself, prefer when whoever's criticizing my work to be as harsh as they can. If things are not right, then it's great of them to point them out, however small they might be. My story can only benefit from it.
However, I've had problems with beta'ing in the past. Some people just don't respond well to criticism and take it as a personal attack on their writing capabilities. However, I think that, in order to be a successful writer, you have to be able to deal with criticism, no matter how cruel it is. If someone tells you to cut thousands of words, there has to be a good reason behind it, right?
Is it a general thing, the not really wanted to be criticized so strongly? How do you prefer your critics to be?
I, myself, prefer when whoever's criticizing my work to be as harsh as they can. If things are not right, then it's great of them to point them out, however small they might be. My story can only benefit from it.
However, I've had problems with beta'ing in the past. Some people just don't respond well to criticism and take it as a personal attack on their writing capabilities. However, I think that, in order to be a successful writer, you have to be able to deal with criticism, no matter how cruel it is. If someone tells you to cut thousands of words, there has to be a good reason behind it, right?
Is it a general thing, the not really wanted to be criticized so strongly? How do you prefer your critics to be?