How to give feedback
I learned the power of feedback early. I was in my first writing seminar at Concordia University’s Creative Writing program. It was the first semester and I was getting feedback on my first submitted story.
One of my peers threw up her hand immediately, as if she had been waiting all day for this very moment. She started a rant about the wishy-washiness of my main character, and how, as a woman writer, I was obliged to write strong female characters that uplifted all women, and that didn’t further put us in a place of powerlessness.
My 19-year-old self cooly replied, “I am not obliged to write anything, I can write what I want, about who I want.”
What I needed (what I still need)(what all writers need) is to know how effectively I am writing it.
When you provide feedback, it’s not an opportunity for you to prescribe how you would have written the story. Rather, it’s supposed to help your fellow writer gain a clearer understanding of what they’re doing well, what they need to improve on, and how their story is being perceived by readers.
Writers need objective and constructive feedback, so if you’re asked to provide that precious help, here are some questions and tips you can use to frame your response.
What story is the writer trying to tell?
You need to understand the writer’s intentions before you can comment on the execution of said intentions. Are they trying to write romantasy? Or is it a feel-good story about a family of fairies that falls apart and comes back together? Open your comments by articulating what you perceive their story to be about. If you think it’s a family saga, but they had intended to write romantasy—or vice versa—sharing your perceptions will help the writer better understand where the message got lost.
And if you understood correctly, then the writer is immediately reassured that the foundations of their story are strong.
How can they improve the telling?
Damn, they’re trying to write a romantasy after all, huh? Proceed with a confirmation of what they’re doing well so far (ie. description of the fantasy world, character development, fight choreography, etc.) and then make a list of ways they can improve (ie. less about the family drama and more effort into establishing attraction between the couple, add more backstory to show how characters will grow through love, etc.).
Connect all your comments back to the writer’s original intention. This helps your peer better understand how the work can be improved and why.
Choose your words wisely
So you’re reading a manuscript and it occurs to you that it would be interesting to swap around the main characters or introduce an event that could raise the stakes in an interesting way. Once you’ve made all your others comments, you are absolutely allowed to make suggestions, but avoid busting through with “if I were writing this”. Instead, try “why did you choose to tell this story through the perspective of this character?” or “have you considered introducing something catastrophic here, such as a fairy plague, to push the plot along?”
Frame your suggestions as a dialogue and pepper it with plenty of curiosity. Talking about writing, generally and specifically, will greatly help the writer understand where they need to evolve. You may also learn a few things in the mix.
And if they reject your suggestions with solid arguments as to why they made the choices they made, respectfully back off. If you feel that strongly, you can always write your own fairy love story.
Lastly, the only useful nugget that I gleaned from that girl’s comments was the theme of empowerment. When I re-read my story after, I realized that I had written a story about a women finding her agency, but that her act of rebellion was quiet and personal, a small win that no one other than her would understand.
That girl and I never became friends, but her negative comment did (in a roundabout way) confirm that I was moving in the right direction.
What has been some of the most/least useful feedback you have ever received?
PS. I’ll be travelling soon and that means more travel writing through to June. So stick around!