Pet Peeve 58 – Weenies – Part Two
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
I have to admit that breathing a bit of fresh air into pet peeves and airing my annoyances has got me back into the pet peeve post addiction. While I don’t actually have that much to complain about, I do feel I need to add on to an old pet peeve: Weenies.
In the previous part of Weenies, I talked about people who can’t handle criticism. Maybe they think their writing is perfect (then why ask for critique, silly writer) or maybe they have yet to develop that ‘hard shell’, but there are people out there who just can’t handle it.
Today I’m talking about another breed of weenie. A sibling of the aforementioned weenies.
The weenies who might be able to handle criticism, but they don’t want it. Period.
I do understand the occasional ‘gentle critique please’ request I see on writing forums. There are some people who like nothing more than breaking aspiring writers in half, which doesn’t do them a spot of good and just destroys their egos. In that environment, it’s not surprising to go in with a bit of caution.
However, when you’re in a professional environment and you have asked an editor to look at your work, why in the world would you say something like: “Only look at X because I don’t care to hear what you have to say about the rest of it.”
Why? If you have paid for a certain type of editing, fine enough, but to pay for editing – including continuity – and then to say that you don’t want part of what you paid for…
In the end it just irks me. An editor – a good editor – has only one focus: making your book the best it can be. To request an editor do anything less, and likely have to duct tape their mouths shut to keep from saying what they want to say, in a professional environment is silly.
You don’t have to take all the advice an editor gives, so why not have your pick of the lot instead of limiting yourself before you (and the editor) even get started?