The perils and pitfalls of feedback

I’ve been reflecting on the value of feedback as a writer recently. Partly because I’ve been asking for and receiving readers’ impressions on the second draft of my work in progress and partly because I’ve been involved in reviewing mentoring applications for the Off the Shelf Literature Festival as part of my role at The Writers Workshop. I’ ve been working with aspiring writers for twenty years now and I know that feedback is something writers feel desperate for. I also know that the wrong kind of feedback at the wrong time can be devastating. At various points in my own career, feedback has actually stopped me from writing and I hear this story time and time again, particularly from writers who have studied writing academically. When you’ve poured your heart and soul into a piece of work, it’s very easy to become dispirited and give up if it’s not well-recieved. And yet, without feedback, it’s really hard for us to see what’s working and what we need to improve. We can’t learn in a vacuum. How do we get the balance right? Here’s what I’ve learned.

Choose your critics carefully

Most early stage writers begin by joining writing groups and workshops and, personally, I’m a huge fan. I wouldn’t run The Writers Workshop if I wasn’t! A writer can learn so much by writing alongside other people where there’s the opportunity for instant feedback from peers. If a whole group of writers are in agreement that something’s not achieving its aims, a group can be a fantastic resource for feedback. BUT, and it’s a huge but, you can’t gurantee that the writers in your group are skilled in giving feedback and nor are they likely to be experts in the craft of writing. Just because Bob finds your writing soppy, it doesn’t mean that your romance novel is a waste of your time. And just because Claire doesn’t like semi-colons, it doesn’t mean you need to emulate Emily Dickinson and use dashes. Writers are as individual in their tastes as the rest of society and, though writers are some of the kindest and most generous people I know, they also have egos and sometimes the green-eyed monster can rear its head. More often, they’re too kind and will tell you that everything you write is marvellous! If you want really useful feedback, you need to choose your critics carefully. Ask for feedback from writers whose expertise you respect, writers who know your genre and who you know to be honest and sensitive. if you don’t respect Bob or Claire, take their opinions with a pinch of salt!

Ask for feedback at the right time

I’m stuck with my novel at the moment. I know that I have a great premise for a book and I know that I’m a good writer but I also know that after six years and two drafts, something is not quite right about the plot. Feedback before I’d written the first draft wouldn’t have been helpful for me; too much early feedback could dent my confidence and throw me off course. I’m a pantser (not a plotter) and I need a first draft to be an intuitive process. But there comes a point when I can’t know if the book is ready for submission without feedback. I’m at that point now so I paid a successful novelist for feedback and also gave my book to a trusted friend. It would be great if they agreed about what I should do now. (They do not…)

Interorrogate your own desire for feedback

We were discussing the subject of feedback in my Monday Morning Motivation group and I really appreciated the honesty of one group member who admitted that they had sometimes asked for feedback when what they were actually seeking was validation. Are you looking for support? Sympathy? An ego massage? Be honest and say so. There are writing peers who will be happy to remind you that you have talent and tell you why you should keep going. Just don’t ask for feedback if it’s not feedback that you actually need. Particularly if you’re feeling vulnerable, it could damage your confidence and possibly your relationship with the person feeding back.

Be specific about the kind of feedback you require

So many of the pitfalls of giving and receiving feedback can be fixed by being specific about the kind of feedback that you require at any given point. When an idea is new, you don’t need to have your syntax picked apart; you need to know if the work resonates with a reader, if it has them wanting to know more. When you’re ready to submit, you might want to know if your writing hits the right note for your target market, and if you’re about to self-publish, you need every typo picking up before you print. If you’re asking for feedback, be clear about the kind of comments you need and a lot of the issues with the feedback process will melt away.

Make sure you can separate your work from yourself

it’s harder than it sounds but the most important thing to develop as a writer is a thick skin. Though it might come from your heart and be informed by your own experiences, your writing is not you. The whole population of the world could hate everything you write and, as a human being, you are still worthy. Words on the page can be changed and rearranged and the truth is most writers’ final manuscripts will have very little in common with their first drafts. Writing is hard. When I first started out, I expected that I could write a first draft, send it off and get published. I meet a lot of new writers who expect the same. It rarely happens. Novelists often write several novels and several drafts of each before getting published. Accepting this as part of the journey, helps a lot in my experience. And if you never make it, you can still be a wonderful person who is much-loved! Enjoy the process.

Take time to reflect on feedback before acting

However much I’ve develeped a protective shield, getting feedback is still tricky. I still sent my novel off to my mentor hoping that she would tell that me that it was a work of genius which needed only minor adjustments. She didn’t. In fact, though she was positive about my writing, I was left with the feeling that in order to fix my manuscript I would need to start from scratch and lose at least seventy per cent of the book. That’s hard to take after six years of writing. So, what did I do? I sent it to someone else to read to see if they agreed. Meanwhile, I put it in the metaphorical drawer and worked on other things. Six months later, I’ve had further feedback and now that I’ve let that settle, I feel ready to tackle the work.

Trust yourself

Will I rewrite the whole book in accordance with the views of the mentor I paid? I’m not sure yet. Though I can see the validity of her perspective, I’m not sure it’s what I want to do with this book. In the end, I have to write the book that I want to write and that I will feel happy with. Ultimately we have to learn to take on board feedback but trust our own instincts. We may have very particular reasons for wanting to write a book in a particular way. The final skill in receiving feedback is to know when to let go of your own vision and when to stick to your guns. In the end, you need to trust yourself.

Myself and many of the associate team at The Writers Workshop offer feedback packages so do get in touch if you feel you need an outside eye at any point.