Wednesday Writing: How to Give Good Feedback
Hey everyone,
I’ve been meaning to start doing a weekly post about creative writing. I know a lot of people who read also love to write [myself included] and I thought it would be helpful to talk about some things like feedback, passive versus active, what to do once you’ve written a book/story/poem and why things like adverbs drive me insane.
Today I’m going to talk about feedback. Most people who write have probably already experienced giving and receiving feedback, and if you haven’t, it’s one of those things you’re likely to come across. Feedback can be wonderfully helpful, and I can guarantee that every book on the shelf in your favourite bookstore will have had feedback at some point, be it from coffee with friends style critiques, creative writing meetings, from online beta-readers, or from agents and editors. When it is good and helpful, it can really improve the quality of your writing. You can feel more motivated to write, too. Feedback should always be a little bit critical, if it is going to help shape you as a writer, but when it is done badly, such as when someone gives you a long list of complaints without any positives, or when they personally attack you, then it can leave you wondering if there’s any merit to your writing, or if you should maybe stop wasting your time and go back to living in the real world, throwing your writing in the shredder and deleting all your back-ups so you can pretend it never existed in the first place.
I’m here to tell you that that numpty is wrong and mean and they don’t deserve your time.
So with that in mind, I’m going to try and explain some tips for giving and receiving feedback, so you can get as much out of the experience as possible.
For Receiving Feedback:
First off, remember that you shouldn’t take everything to heart. Sometimes, when you really like a line or character, a scene or a plot point, it can sting to listen to someone disagreeing with you, or suggesting you cut that thing out altogether. Keep in mind that most people have more than one person who is giving feedback [if you’re looking for a beta-reader, opt for at least two, preferably more] so if one person flags up something and the other person disagrees with them and says it worked fine in their eyes, you can always call it a tie and decide what you want to do. The decision, ultimately, rests with you. You don’t have to cut or correct or rewrite or anything else even when someone is urging you to, but most of the time, you’ll find that readers do have your best interests at heart and they just want to help you improve your writing.
Secondly, give them time! If you’ve emailed over your 500 page novel, don’t expect them to get back to you two days later with all their notes. People take time to read things, and unfortunately we don’t live in a world where our writing is always a priority. Your reader might have a job, or they might be busy doing stuff with friends, they might not feel up to reading it, or they might just not be in the mood. And that’s okay. If they take a long time without checking in, you can always give them a little nudge, but otherwise just leave them to it. You’ll get better notes if you’re patient.
Third, don’t be afraid to ask for clarification, or ask them why they felt the way they did about a certain thing they’re flagging up. I’ll write the same for giving feedback too. Sometimes, when I’m reading something, I’ll just scribble a quick, generic note saying something like ‘adverbs.’ I usually go back and change it, adding an explanation, but if I’m in a rush it can slip my mind. That one word means something to me, but I know other people might not understand, and that’s why it is okay for the person receiving feedback to ask what a note meant, or why they didn’t think Character X was as interesting on paper as Character Y. If you don’t ask, you might never know that your reader thought Character X wasn’t given enough backstory. It’s questions like that which will help your writing flourish.
Fourth, don’t be afraid to walk away from a critique partner who isn’t working out for you. I’ve had a few over the years who have been overly negative about work I’ve been proud of and praised for, I’ve had partners who have gone in the other direction and offered nothing but streams of positive [and usually very vague] notes. And I’ve had critique partners whose feedback I found it difficult to value because they offered up a lot of advice which showed they hadn’t paid close attention to the text, or they didn’t really know what they were talking about. You can break up with your critique partners, and obviously you should be as kind as you can be about ending it, but you also need to put yourself and your work first in this instance. Get a critique partner whose writing makes you shiver with jealousy. Get yourself a critique partner who knows what they’re talking about.
Finally, be nice and offer feedback in return. Often, the best beta-readers are fellow writers, and they’ll also be looking for someone to read their work and give them some notes. If you ask and they say no, or that they’re not showing anyone yet, that’s cool, but you really should ask. It’s a little unfair to expect someone to read and critique your 60 chapter book if you’re giving them nothing in return. IOU if you can’t offer immediate help, and keep in touch with those who read for you. A good network of readers is the best way to get writing up to querying standard.
For Giving Feedback:
Don’t be too harsh. You might notice a whole bunch of things you want to mention, such as a weak character, a not very well described scene, a few lines of humour you thought sounded childish or cliche, a huge sprinkling of passive voice and poor pacing and a load of other things besides. You might be really keen to convey all of this in one big burst, but do try and hold back. Even if you’ve never met the person whose work you’re critiquing, you have to remember there’s still another person on the other side of the paper, and they have human feelings just like you. [If you’re critiquing for a friend/loved one, this can’t be stressed enough.] If you’re struggling, try and do one of those awful tricks they teach you in school: the feedback sandwich. Offer up a positive, even if it is something as small as writing the word ‘nice’ next to a line of dialogue you liked or a vivid description you thought worked well. Then offer some opinions on what that person could change. Be kind and polite. Then, offer them another compliment. If they see you’re trying to be a good person, they’ll be more likely to accept your notes without feeling hurt or annoyed.
Ask what kind of feedback they’re looking for. I am very much a Simon Cowell kinda judge when it comes to critiquing– I’m always the one people are most nervous to hear back from because I usually find faults in things other people pass over. But I only unleash the inner critic after I ask what the writer wants out of a piece. If they’re looking at publishing their work, then I’m critical, and I’m more likely to pick out pedantic little things other people might not feel comfortable mentioning. If, on the other hand, a writer only produced a piece for their own amusement, or to tinker with an idea, I’m more likely to let the little things slide. Asking first is always a good option. And if you’re beta-reading [reading a large chunk of a piece or even the whole project] then it always helps to know what they want you to pay attention to– do they want to know if their pacing was smooth enough? Maybe they’re worried their protagonist wasn’t independent enough, or that there was a plot hole in chapter 7? You can obviously give them feedback on other stuff too [and you should] but finding out what a writer is after from a critique always helps to improve the advice you offer.
If you can, print out a physical copy to write notes on. Some people work better looking at a piece on their laptop or kindle or whatever, but I usually find my eyes start straining when I do that and I miss a lot of small things I could have picked up on if I’d just read it with more care. If you have the same problem, printing it out will help. Make yourself a cup of coffee, tea, hot chocolate, a glass of wine, whatever your drink of choice happens to be, and snuggle up on the sofa with a printed copy and a pen, and make some notes!
Never change things yourself. I can’t stress this enough. Never ever do this unless the person has given you EXPRESS permission to do this. If you’re using something like google docs or word, you have the option to make little comments at the side. Feel free to suggest alternatives. I do all the time, leaving a note like: ‘Suggestion: instead of ‘Elena was the worst. She bullied me all the time’ maybe you could show her meanness? Eg. ‘I can’t walk down a hallway without Elena tripping me over. She deliberately sits close in class, leaning in to poke me and pull the strands of my hair and when I look away she flicks my pencil off the desk and laughs when I bend over to pick it up.’ There’s a big difference between suggesting a change and actually doing it. I wouldn’t even correct a spelling mistake or grammatical error on the text, since the writer is probably just going to miss it and leave it out of their final draft. Comment boxes are your friend, but fight the urge to delve into their original text and change things for yourself. Just because you’re critiquing, doesn’t mean they’re going to agree with your change. You might not even be right. I’ve sometimes accidentally suggested a comma where there doesn’t need to be one. You’re not a God of Words and it isn’t your work. You can offer advice and suggestions, but ultimately, you’re not the person who has written the work.
Give detailed feedback. I usually read and critique on a tit-for-tat basis, meaning I will read 50 pages/a chapter/a novel of a person’s work if they read and critique something of mine which is a similar length. And there’s nothing more disappointing than generic, sparse notes. You shouldn’t expect a reader to pick out every single fault, but one comment per thirty pages isn’t really cool. You need to give up the goods. Dedicate time to reading their work, to spotting some things you can mention, good or bad. And when you are offering a change or suggesting that something isn’t right and could be improved, try explaining why. It personally helps me a lot to know that a person thinks I should change the word ‘nah’ because it sounds too colloquial and my character usually speaks quite formally so it doesn’t fit with them. It makes sense that a person who has spent a lot of time and put a lot of love into writing something is sometimes going to be a bit upset or defensive when you suggest changing something they’ve worked hard on. Easing them into making a decision which will improve their work is easier when you can explain why you think something needs to be tinkered with.
And if you do happen to struggle with writing notes for a particular section, explaining why can take the edge off the author. Maybe it is because the pace was too slow and your eyes glazed over a bit reading about ‘Moira’s fantastic new outfit. She wore a coat of green wool flecked with grey and with a soft black collar that folded up under her chin. Under that she wore black tights that gathered at her ankles, with ladders running up to her knees, a denim knee-length skirt and a salmon-pink blouse with a black ribbon and a scoop neck cut. She wore at least ten bracelets and two gleaming silver rings.’ Or maybe it is because there’s so much juicy action and tension that you got lost in the writing and forgot that you were actually meant to be giving feedback at all. There’s a big difference between those two, and, speaking from experience, writers can be quite fragile and we need our egos smoothed sometimes. That includes being told when you’ve done a good job, and that your writing needs improvements but doesn’t actually suck.
That’s all folks. Tune in next Wednesday for more of my Wednesday Writing Advice and while you’re waiting, get cracking with handing out that awesome feedback.