Months after entering my first writing contest, I held three reviews in hand. Two of the reviews gave me positive feedback, but that third, well it tore into all of my efforts and basically made my writing look worthless.

Receiving feedback is crucial for any aspiring novelists, but sometimes it’s also dream-crushing. So how do we overcome the negative reviews?

It took me some time, but I began to realize that my third critique actually had helpful information. See, with the first two critiques, they offered me only the positives they saw, but this last judge told me everything–the good, the bad, the ugly.

My WIP wasn’t “good enough”. I had room to improve, and I needed a “bad” critique to help me grow. Last week, we discussed ways to overcome the not good enough syndrome. How can we feel like our writing is ready for agents or editors?

Well, sometimes we have to take negative feedback. Listen to it. Look for truth within and apply it to your writing. Most writers don’t start out ready to publish their novels. We grow, improve, and learn from negative reviews until our writing reaches the “good enough” mark. So whether you’re trying to overcome a dream-crushing review or just your own self-conscious thoughts, let the doubts challenge you to grow. You’re a writer. Chase after this dream well…