How Should a Writer Respond to Feedback?

-

So, you've attended a critique group and need to know what to do with the feedback. First, and foremost, keep writing. Don't spend every meeting rehashing the same pages.

What Do You Do With the Feedback?

As you keep writing remember the following:


You don't have to change everything the group suggests. The work is yours. You've joined a group for feedback, but sometimes it's worthwhile to take that feedback with a grain of salt. Not everyone will agree on what works and what doesn't. If everyone, or most everyone, tells you something, it's probably worth considering. Also, notice who gave you the information. I've gotten great feedback from less experieinced writers, but when the feedback gives me pause, I do consider the background and genre experience of the person providing the feedback. If you choose to ignore certain feedback, make sure it's based on something you can explain. For instance, it's goes against the personality of your character or changes the story line.

If you don't understand a comment, ask for more information. Some groups ask the writer not to speak during the feedback, but I find this annoying and unhelpful. If someone says something about my writing and it's not clear what they're telling me, I ask.

If you disagree with a comment or it surprises you, ask if others in the group agree with the feedback. Every now and then, a comment will surface that gives me pause. Let's face it, we all read with our own perspectives, so another person's reaction can be quite different from your own. If it feels really out of left field, then put the question to the whole group. If you get broad agreement, then it's probably worth exploring the feedback further.

Feedback is subjective. There are many accepted standards of writing, so you want to learn those, but when it comes to the story line itself, make sure you don't take advice that sends you down the wrong path with your story. I let a group convince me that my character behaved too stoically for the circumstances. What happened? I turned a princess into a sniveling brat. Not good, and an agent reprimanded me for it. Ouch!

If the critique hurts, ask yourself why you're there. Some people come to writers' groups to hear other writers proclaim them as a great writer. We had a guy attend years ago who introduced himself as the next John Grisham. When we didn't fawn all over his work, he left. It takes an ego to write, but it takes humility to receive honest feedback. If you don't want honest feedback (even given in a tactful way), then choose a different group. There are groups that will pat you on the back and tell you how great you are. Your writing won't improve, but your ego will remain safe.

What about you? What's the oddest feedback you've received? Did you accept it or cast it aside?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Skin Tone: Describing Your Characters

-
Image
When you write about character's of different races, how do you describe their skin tone? If you've never thought about this, then consider this question: How do the authors you read described persons of color? A few months ago, I attended a webinar about writing diverse characters. The guest was Eliana West of Writers for Diversity . The information she shared felt fresh and valuable, especially related to describing a character's skin tone. I get really tired of seeing African-descended characters described in terms of the goods that drove, and still drive the slave trade--coffee, chocolate, brown sugar. There's some weird psychosocial baggage attached to that.    -- N. K. Jemisin As this quote from author, N. K . Jemisin , indicates, historically, writers have described people of color using food-related descriptors. Many people of color find this offensive. This surprised me, at first, but she has a point, especially when you view it through the quote above. My fir...
Read more

Character Development: Using the Johari Window

-
Image
In my last post, Character Development: the Johari Window , I introduced the Johari Window as a tool for developing your characters. It's important that your character not know everything about their situation. These unknowns can lead to an intriguing story and create possibilities for conflict within the story. How do you use the Johari Window? In this post, I thought I'd provide a simple example of the Johari Window with a character most people know:  Harry Potter. Below, I have filled out the Johari Window as it might appear within the first few pages of book 1, Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone . The Johari Window based on Harry Potter and The Sorceror's Stone Three of the quadrants in this window reveal what Harry doesn't know about who he truly is and what happened to his parents. I could add a lot to the quadrants representing what he doesn't know, but I hope this gives you an idea on how a Johari Window might be used. What do you d...
Read more

He Said, She Said, Who Said? Punctuating Dialogue

-
Image
Courtesy of Morguefile.com I've been focusing my posts on workshops and panels I taught or participated on at the Imaginarium Convention. Although this serves as a poor substitute for the real thing, I can share some highlights. This week, we're going to explore dialogue punctuation. The first thing writers need to learn is how to properly punctuate dialogue. I've discovered, over the years, that many don't know how. Notice in the first example below, the dialogue starts at the beginning of the sentence, and the speaking tag (he said, she said, Paul said, etc.) follows it.  A few points to notice: The first letter of the quotation is capitalized. What the person says is a sentence, so it must be capitalized. A comma comes directly after the quote and INSIDE the quotation marks. You can, also, have a question mark or exclamation point here. There is a space AFTER the closing quotation mark followed by the speaking tag and a period at the end of the sentence. In the next ...
Read more