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10 Practical Ways Writers Can Improve Feedback

“Treat feedback as a gift rather than as a slap in the face.”

Frank Sonnenberg-Soul Food: Change Your Thinking, Change Your life

Constructive feedback can help any writer irrespective of their talent or abilities. Any writer who wants to be published needs to be able to take on board criticism and even the best writers out there can benefit from a fresh pair of eyes on their work.

Often writers will post pieces of their work in progress (WIP) online for comment, show their work to a family member or be asked in a workshop to provide feedback to others. This is a skill that not many are taught to do so here are 10 things which you should consider.

Giving Feedback

  1. Be professional and don’t get into arguments. Everything is subjective. Practice civility. There is no need to be mean spirited. Help others to build their confidence and skills. There is a difference between being tough and being mean. Remember that we creatives are sensitive souls and harsh criticism can in extreme cases lead a writer to feel they are doomed to failure and they may end up not writing for months.
  2. Make your information useful, direct and to the point. Telling someone their work was good or bad does not help much. What can help is if you are specific about what was good and what could be improved on. The way this is done is important as these are your opinions and suggestions only and even the most accomplished or successful writers do not have all the answers.
  3. Start and end with the positive. Starting with the positive usually makes us more receptive to feedback while immediate negative feedback can cause defensiveness. Any good feedback should be a combination of both negative and positive and preferably end with an empowering comment leaving the writer motivated and encouraged.
  4. Read and critique others work with the same amount of care as you would like them to critique yours. Don’t skim, read deeply and take notes and if you cannot commit to this rethink your reasons for providing feedback.
  5. Don’t nit-pick-if the grammar and spelling are poor do mention it and give a few examples but don’t go through it line by line. That is the work of a good copy editor at a later stage.
  6. Do not overload with criticism. A mountain of feedback, no matter how constructive, can be overwhelming. It is best to choose a few of the most important things and work from there. Use your language carefully. Avoid “need to” phrases and don’t get personal.

 

Receiving Feedback

  1. The quality of feedback is important and family members are not always the best source. They may be proud of your efforts but may not be the most critical. You want the feedback to be honest as well as kind.
  2. Not all feedback is useful. There are lots of workshops and online critique forums with a lot of “congratulatory back slapping” and where everything you write is considered “awesome”. While this is good to hear it doesn’t really move your writing on. Seek out feedback that is relevant and meaningful.
  3. The person you ask feedback from should have a better understanding of the craft than non-writers, know your purpose, your genre and audience. However, it can be useful to also have feedback from someone who has no prior knowledge and who may give you a fresh perspective.
  4. Be flexible in your approach. Even if you do not quite agree with some of the feedback given is there a way you can use it? You may have doubts about a suggested change but understand the reasoning behind it and then be able to find a solution that is right for you.

Perhaps the best strategy is to embrace all feedback but measure it against your own and industry standards and remember the final choice of what you do with it is all yours.