Two Sylvias' Weekly Muse: January 15, 2023

Issue 38

Hello Poets and Writers!

We occasionally receive correspondence from Muse Subscribers asking us to give our advice on the art of critiquing—how to best give and best receive feedback on poems and creative writing. “Critiquing” is such a loaded concept in the writing community, and aside from there being a thousand opinions about how to properly critique (and receive critique), the key element to keep in mind is that “critiquing” is subjective. There might be some feedback that falls into the arena of “proofreading,” which is less subjective and more black and white—the name of that brand you mentioned in the fourth line should be italicized, you might want a comma here, etc. But what about the feedback that is purely opinion? How do we best express and deliver our thoughts on a poem? How do we best receive feedback on our work (in other words, what do we listen to and what do we dismiss)?

Here is an example of a beginning writer who allowed feedback on her poem to eat away at her self-e…