Part Four

Improve

One of the primary gifts of critique is learning where our stories are the weakest and using that knowledge to examine our storytelling toolboxes for global shortcomings. Are our settings often flat? Are our plots predictable? Do our character arcs fail to satisfy? Being able to home in on specifics means that we can search for a remedying education—books or workshops that teach us exactly what we need to learn. In this way, critique helps us not only improve our work-in-progress but our overall storytelling chops.