Workshops seem to be the way most people go, if they want to receive feedback on our writing. There’s no doubt that workshops can be useful to the development of a new writer, but what do you do with all of those workshop critiques?

In honor of the newest batch of Viable Paradise Workshop attendees, I thought I’d offer up some advice for writers who have a bunch of critiques to sort through.

• Do not take the critiques as gospel


• Make only the line editing changes that make sense


• Do not try to incorporate ALL of the changes


• Discard suggestions that don’t help to bring your story toward the end you envision


• Let each critique stand upon its own merits, not the ability of the critiquer to write his own stories (sometimes people write better critiques than fiction and visa versa)


• Give yourself some time to think about the critiques before implementing the changes

These are the bits of advice that have made the most sense to me when revising a workshop story. Let me know if you have any other gems of advice to offer.