“You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance.” - Ray Bradbury

Would you rather receive a critique that pointed out every weakness in your writing or one that praised the “genius” of your work? Your writing will occasionally be torn to shreds by an ornery old lion. When you learn to thrive on criticism you will be able to take those shreds and develop a much stronger piece. Most reviewers are genuinely trying to help even when they sound like an ornery old ignoramus.

Jacob

My team was down by one point. There were only 30 seconds left. Darren passed the ball to the giant forward I was guarding. He turned to shoot. I reached as high as I could and blocked his shot. My opponent wrangled the ball back into his hands and went up harder. I blocked his shot again

The testosterone filled forward turned and bellowed “you have freakishly long arms.”

Should I respond with my own verbal joust when insulted or I should I let it go? I chose to smile and reply “my wife does have a hard time finding long sleeve shirts that fit me!”

The game stopped. Everyone started laughing, its only basketball with my coworkers, who cares if the time runs out.

If you receive a peculiar critique of your work, let it go. It’s not worth raising your blood pressure over. Everyone has an opinion, everyone is allowed to share it, but you are responsible for choosing your response.

And yes, I do have longer than normal arms, but I don’t think they are freakishly long.

Jacob

You can update your work anytime on Review Fuse. You can even update your work after you have submitted it for critique. If you receive your first critique and want to make changes before you receive your next critique, go ahead. When we assign your work for the next critique we will assign the newest version.

Jacob

Last week I was explaining Review Fuse to a friend. At the end of our conversation she asked me what made Review Fuse different. I replied “there are a lot of online writing groups that praise everyone’s work as literary genius. Review Fuse is different because our mission is to get members to tell each other how to improve their writing.”

I felt pretty good about my mission statement until spoke with a creative writing professor after demonstrating Review Fuse in one of his creative writing courses. While the students were busy critiquing each other’s essays I asked the professor how he helped students improve as authors. His reply made me question my mission statement. He said “there are enough people out there to tear you down. I build my students up by focusing on telling them what they do well. When my students try to publish their writing they will find out how good and determined they really are.”

In order to understand what you really expect from a critique I reviewed some of the critiques given on Review Fuse this weekend. I found that

• Critiques that told the authors what they did well and pointed out how to improve received great feedback scores.
• Critiques that only pointed out how to improve generally received average critique feedback scores.
• Critiques that simply praised the literary genius of the author tended to receive low feedback scores.

My new critique mission statement includes both building up and pointing out how to improve. What do you expect from the critiques you receive?


Jacob

Our goal is to get authors critiqued within 72 hours of completing their assigned reviews. We give priority to members with high review quality scores and who have completed their assigned critiques. If you want to get critiqued as fast as possible, then give high quality critiques and maintain a strong review quality score.

If it ever takes longer than 72 hours to receive your critiques please let us know. If you have writing you would like to get critiqued please join our writing community.


Jacob

The results of the bug I reported Monday have largely been erased. When I reported the delay there were over 100 stories, poems, and essays that should have been critiqued, but had not been as a result of this bug. As of Wednesday morning only 23 stories and poems were still suffering from the side effects of this bug. These works should receive their critiques by Friday.

I would like to thank Jobaby for reporting this bug to us and again apologize for the delay we caused. Our goal is to get members critiqued within 72 hours of completing their assigned reviews. If you notice delays in getting critiqued, encounter issues with our site, or find a bug please let us know.

Jacob