I am here for constructive criticism

Whoo Hoo!!!! This is my 2 week anniversary on Medium!!! 🍻🎉💥🍻

Over the years I have submitted my writing to several poetry and short story contests/publications and a few years back I sent in theater scrips to agents and theater companies, but had them all rejected. Admittedly, I didn’t put in tireless hours and days of submitting. It was more sporadic and mostly I forgot about the submission until the rejection email came in. And it was always a form letter stating something like, “sorry, but we had a ton of entries, don’t take this rejection as a sign that your writing isn’t publishable.” or “our editors appreciate your submitting to our publication, but it is not what we are looking for right now. Please feel free to submit in the future.” This is all well and good, but I never received any constructive criticism. Well, one of my plays was returned by a big time theatrical agent with the criticism, presumably written by an undergrad intern, that said that I needed to adhere more to the A.B.C. formula of playwriting. After 20 some years in the theater, I had never heard of the “A.B.C. formula.” I guess I hadn’t read that textbook since I was too busy learning by doing. Nevertheless, I was mostly content in writing for myself and sharing it with a few friends or producing my own plays.

Anyway, Medium seemed like a good place to get my writing seen, read, and perhaps receive feedback of the constructive criticism type. Words of encouragement are welcome, by all means, as are recommendations. But I would like to ask for honest criticism about what is and isn’t working and how it is or isn’t working. So far I have only published poetry, so I understand that this is harder to critique because of it’s subjective nature. The highlighting of what someone likes is good. If enough people highlight something then I know I touched enough nerves. But if something falls flat I would like to hear about it. Believe me, I have tough skin and an open mind and can take criticism. Of course if it doesn’t seem constructive to me, then I will probably take note and then not really be able to do anything with it.

Also, if there are writers here that are open to constructive criticism, let me know. I would be happy to give feedback. If it strikes a cord and is useful, great. If not, disregard it as my personal take on it.

I have been active creatively for 30 some years. The older I get the more I realize that I have so much more to learn and to grow as a creative person, but I also have something to give back. I also realize that creativity is always collaborative even if you are the lonely writer sitting in a closed room unless it is diary entries that you are working on. The bridge between self awareness and universal story telling lies in collaboration.