IS IT SAFE TO LOOK AT THE MOON?

What Is Your Goal?

What is your goal? We are asked this many times, wherever we go and join a group. What is a satisfactory answer? To do the best we can? To keep up with the activities of the group, and be active all the time? To share our hopes and dreams with the group? What is the right answer?

Joining a critique group is something we should consider. Let's say, the critique group is about writing children's book. So, the group decides to critique the work of each member. One member comes up with a story about a girl who loves dancing. Another comes up with a tale about an orphan girl. Still another writes about a boy who is missing.

Before we go ahead with this line of thinking, we should consider that all these writers are educated but not published. They critique each other's work, or they give their reason why such a statement or such an idea is not good as a children's book. Most of the time, they do not critique but each and everyone makes a criticism. The reason, because the statement does not sound reasonable or the story will not fly or the number of words are not acceptable as a children's book.

What actually happens is that emotion comes up as the sole reason we pretend to critique. We do not understand there are rules to follow, and with our emotion aroused, we criticize. We should critique because the story "tells" and not "show". We critique because the rules of writing are not followed. We criticize because we have not learned the proper way to critique.

But we can learn to critique, can we not?