How can you tell whether criticism is useful?
Imagine you have written a short story about a child who finds a dog, grows fond of it and eventually returns it to its owner. Two readers object to the ending.
One says, “I wanted the child to keep the dog.” The other asks, “How did the owner find them? They appear from nowhere in the last paragraph.”
Both readers wanted something different from what they received. But their comments point to different questions. Did you mean the goodbye to hurt? Have you given the reunion enough explanation to make sense?
Criticism is useful when it helps you understand the work or decision more accurately. Its value is not measured by how much you obey, or by whether hearing it feels pleasant.
A Spark from The Vision
Criticism should help you make better decisions, and not stop you from doing anything.
In Everyone has critics, Innocent Mwatsikesimbe encourages learning from the different views criticism makes available. He asks us to consider them alongside our own view and the actual situation. The purpose is a better decision, rather than surrendering the work or becoming afraid to continue.
Find the observation inside the response
The first reader’s sadness might be part of what you hoped to create. You wanted the child to do something caring that also involved loss. A wish for a happier ending does not by itself show that the story needs one.
It is still worth asking what the reader found unsatisfying. Perhaps the goodbye was moving, and they simply wished it did not have to happen. Perhaps they felt the child’s attachment had been dismissed too quickly. The same short comment can contain either experience, and those answers would give you different things to consider.
The second reader has identified a possible gap. Look back at the story. Did anyone try to find the owner? Was there an earlier sign that someone was searching? If the reunion depends on information you imagined but never put on the page, the reader has helped you notice it.
Their experience is something you did not have while writing: meeting the story without knowing what you meant to include. You can learn from that difference without assuming the reader understands every cause of the problem.
Judge the proposed change separately
Suppose the second reader suggests removing the owner and letting the child keep the dog. That would remove the unexplained arrival. It would also remove the choice around which you built the story.
You could instead make the search for the owner visible earlier. Then let another reader encounter the ending without explaining it first. Their response can help you judge whether the missing connection is clearer and whether the goodbye still has the meaning you wanted.
A useful criticism need not contain the right solution. Sometimes it supplies a true account of where someone became confused. Sometimes it reveals a preference that does not fit your purpose. Keeping those possibilities separate lets you use the comment without giving it more authority than it deserves.
The manner of criticism matters when deciding what further conversation to allow. Ridicule may give you a reason to stop sharing with someone, even if you later find a useful observation in what they said.
After revision, the child may still return the dog and feel sad. The reader may still wish otherwise. The ending can nevertheless be stronger because the reunion now follows from something the story has shown. Criticism helped you make the intended choice clearer; it did not have to replace that choice with the critic’s favourite outcome.
Related lessons
AI-generated from Innocent Mwatsikesimbe's writing.
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