Does critting rob you of creative energy?

I know there's a time in your life when you've got to crit and be critted. (Or maybe there isn't?)

I'm just wondering does anybody find the business of owing a crit back really distracting. It hangs over me like an unpaid bill plus it can take anything up to two hours to do a really good one. Then I find I'm weak and exhausted and think, oh well, at least I've done something writing related today and probably not do a whole lot of my own work.

Do you think there's a point where you need all your focus for the work you're doing yourself, never mind having to go through somebody else's writing trying to find what's good or bad about it.



Is there a point where you just have to withdraw from the writing world and get on with the business of producing your own masterpiece sans comment or input from another until you are done?

What do other people think?
How does it work for you?

veinglory said:

For example -- when I don't feel like writing but do feel like critting I will go and bank some crits at places like crtiquecircle.com that I can use when the reverse is true.

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Ah, but I think this might be part of the problem for me. It's a form of procrastination I think. If I wasn't involved in this a crit for a crit business, I wouldn't have any legitimate alternative to writing. When I'm finished all those crits I often feel out of steam. Oh, maybe it's just me. Maybe I'm at the end of a cycle.

lfraser said:

I found that the critiquing process robbed me of some of the time and energy I need for writing.

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Ah ha, somebody agrees with me.

I agree that the critting process has been invaluable for all the reasons others have mentioned above. Although I must say, it never once made me feel in any way creative, like some people have found. Maybe because I completely switch off the creative part of myself in order to do a crit. Only once ever did I come across a fabulous idea in a story that just had been completley under done by the original writer.
I got all excited trying to think of ways she could pick it up and run with it. Then I realised it was her baby not mine and I just advised her to try and develop the idea.

Some people seem to be like me. Once you get into the creative flow of your story I think it's important that every time you sit at your computer or desk,that it's her you spend the time with. Obviously, my muse requires me to be faithful

No I definitely have a muse. Perhaps even a committee of muses. They're always tap tapping with ideas and suggestions to make the story even even better. It's a whole different buzz when you write as opposed to when you edit. (Except for my own stuff, I actually do find that creative because I have the right to change and rework my own writing)

Finishing a crit for someone else is like housework. It's done and you're glad and the place is sparkling but there's no high.

Writing is something different. It gives and it takes.

Ah, I'm not explaining it very well.

I think a part of my problem with critting has to do with my personality. I like to get mundane stuff out of the way. So a crit is a bit of a nagging itch in my head. I don't actually mind ones I just come upon. You know if I see a story and I feel I can add a comment or two that might be helpful. It's when I know I have seven to do that it drives me crazy.

BTW, that's a work practise on another site. We submit a story in a particular section and then crit all the others submitted in that section. I enjoyed it for a while. Now I find it takes up all my writing energy for a day to get the stories read and the crits in.

So I guess I'm going to have to stop. Maybe others are doing it quicker than me or they're just more energetic or something but I can't keep it all going.

I'm inclined to think for some of us, critting is part of the learning curve. There comes a time to leave it behind and move on. It's too draining to do simultaneously with focusing on a big work.

The Merf said:

When I used to do stuff for Critters, it really exhausted me, and by the time I was done with my crits, the last thing I wanted to do was work on my own work.

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That's how it is for me too. It's why I'm going to stop critting.