I’m supposed to be on a writing hiatus, and I am, just not from writing on the blog.
Feedback what separates a writer from an author. You Need Feedback. Period.
That being said, not all feedback is helpful or useful to you. Half the time it’s not useful at all. Sometimes critiques are not given in earnest and other times the comments are well-meaning but just plain wrong.
So now that we’re all getting Vietnam flashbacks of the worst critique partner we’ve ever had, lets walk through the basics. If you’re reading this, it’s probably because I’m about to give you a critique and linked this page as a way to prime you on what to expect and more importantly, how to behave.
This comes up a lot, so if you know, skip to the next segment.
Critique Partner (CP): Overall partner who critiques your stuff. These guys are the ones who should be pointing out grammar/technical, dev edit, line edit if you’re lucky or they just really like you.
Alpha Reader: An early reader who gives their personal opinions (not editorial) throughout the manuscript before you move on to major revisions. This helps direct your editorial vision.
Beta Reader: A reader who gives their personal opinions (not editorial) throughout the book. These folks point out anything late stage that might be… off.
Sensitivity Reader: Are you writing as another demographic? Best get someone in that culture/group to read it. Just because you think you know, doesn’t mean you actually do.
I once had a male friend who told me that if he was a girl, he’d want his prostate stimulated… Don’t be that guy.
Ok, so you know the lingo, what are the No-No’s of giving feedback?
- Don’t Be A Dick.
This should be self-explanatory but here we are. If you don’t want someone to say this about your work, don’t say it to them.
2. Thou Shall Not Ego Check
This is something people don’t often realize they’re doing, but it’s annoying and its unprofessional. Ego checking is when a CP tries to determine the writing skill level of the other author. This can be prodding questions, micro-aggressive comments, or bragging.
I had all the works done on A Soul Reclaimed by a RevPit Editor. Elizabeth Buege did and excellent job. She did the Dev edit, line edit, copy edit. By the time we were done it was chromatic when my CP got it. The CP made comments that the manuscript “Was clearly a rough draft” and ended up looking really unprofessional.
You want your CPs to be more experienced than you, that makes you a better writer. No chest puffing required.
3. Communicate
Give notice of delays in reading and what kind of feedback provider you are, yada yada yada. More importantly, are the issues in the manuscript beyond you? Is this a genre you know and read? Are you familiar with the tropes and are these characters you’re rooting for?
My WriteMentor mentee has a hell of a time when it comes to edits and feedback because she writes Gothic Literature, don’t know what that is? Neither does she.
My point is, many people give her feedback that’s detrimental. They want to put her in the commercial box their familiar with. So instead of saying, “hey, this is out of my depth,” many people attempt to “fix” something that isn’t broken. She didn’t get a full scholarship to Tin House on commercial writing, just saying.
It’s okay if you don’t know. It’s not okay to pretend you don’t and critique a genre you don’t get.
Now we’re at the juicy bit… When to follow feedback and when not to follow feedback… Buckle up.
Is it Grammar/punctuation recommendations?
Then YES! For the love of Baphomet implement that feedback.
I once had a CP who refused to use dialogue tags. I’m not a strict rule follower and I know there are authors out there who don’t use them, the problem is that this CP did not know how to effectively write without them. You know that whole “break the rules…” thing, you got to understand the rules first.
Stephen Graham Jones told me that when he used no punctuation when he first started writing, but dearest gentle readers, he does now.
I thought I was so cool and different, but don’t know if people enjoyed reading it, though.”
I’m all for some experimental slam poetry or novels in verse, but if you’re doing it for the sake of doing it… Don’t. Punctuation develops prose, it curbs your words into nice little spoonful’s for your readers. Be intentional with your words and your signs.
Did you just see the comments?
All writers know the feeling. You see the comment and instantly lurch. Defensive posture, sneering at the screen, this person doesn’t know what the fuck they’re talking about!
It’s perfectly natural to defensive, but that doesn’t mean the feedback is wrong. I once had a CP who decided to follow-up on each and every one of my comments with “I disagree/No, I’m not changing that/You’re wrong.”
And like, I’m CPing for free, okay? I didn’t sign up for someone to follow along on Google Docs to decline every comment I made. I had to tell her to stop or I’d quit reading.
Do you want someone to tell you your work is good or someone to help you make it better? If you want the former, just say so. Positivity passes are a thing.
You will want to protect your work but protecting a turd doesn’t a flower make. Read the feedback, digest the feedback. Kick rocks and work out whatever emotions you have going on, then come back to the feedback.
Until you can look at comments objectively, don’t dismiss the comments.
Is it relevant to your genre and age category?
This is something that can be hard to find. Often times, its so hard to find CPs that we just settle for anyone willing to read it. I see you and I understand. This does mean, however, is that you must be the expert of your genre and age range. You must read… READ, and know your tropes.
Primarily, I write in the Gothic variety. So when I write stories about damsels running through crumbling castles in their nightgowns and the CP says, “I don’t like damsels in nightgowns running through crumbling castles in the night,” I probably won’t listen to that comment.
On the other hand, if my CP says, “Why is the damsel running around at night? What is she looking for? I don’t understand…” This comment means I need to clarify a thing or two, so yeah, time to read that page over.
Does it spark joy?
Is your brain thinking about that comment/suggestion days after you read it? You went from expletives to “What if I….” Then yes, you want to use that feedback.
You may not want to use the CP’s suggestion, you’ll probably come up with your own unique solution to the problem, and that’s cool. Do that.
Just because they’re globing on, doesn’t make it true.
If you do workshops or online group critiques like Pubtips, you’ll notice that one person will comment and the rest sort of glob on to the same idea. I don’t recommend multiple people having access to the same copy for this reason.
For example, I submitted my query for feedback on Pubtips and people decided that the title was the issue. Commentors globed on to the idea that The Cuckoo’s Nest was too close to One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest and took issue with it. Others claimed that my adult horror wasn’t adult despite the content. (I.E Cannibalism isn’t for children)
The second time I sent in my query, people were parroting a comment from the first round.
So how did I deduce if these comments should be taken seriously? Firstly, the horror community came in and gave specific examples of Cuckoos use in horror as well as child protagonists in horror. I ended up not having to do my homework because horror fans on Reddit did it for me with breathtaking precision. But when in doubt, you should be reading in your genre, it will reduce the uncertainty!
Multiple people repeating the same things isn’t always more relevant, it’s just people who feel they need to say something for whatever reason.
On the other hand, if you have five people reading separate versions and they all flag the same issue, it probably means it’s an issue. This can take different forms. Ever have one CP say the pace was too fast and the other said it was too slow? Both readers are picking up on a pace issue but are unsure of how to resolve it. If you have a multitude of conflicting comments on a single subject, it means the readers are flagging a problem even if they don’t know what it is.
If you run into lots of conflicting feedback, you might want to go back to a developmental level, something isn’t quite working. You probably felt it about three quarters through the first draft too. Why the three-quarters mark? Well, cause that’s when everything starts falling into place and you can’t fall into place when earlier elements aren’t there.
My process as a CP…
Firstly, I establish what the goal is for the manuscript. If it’s for querying, the format has to be right and the expectations in Indie pub aren’t the same as Trad Pub. I do both so I know both, but the rules are different.
Secondly, I give this whole “don’t be a dick” sort of pep talk, try to steer them away from Google Docs, the bane of my existence. Then, I get to work…
I am not here to line edit your work. If I see an issue on a craft level, I will flag it, explain why not to do it, and cite someone other than myself as to why you shouldn’t do it. I do this on the first page and only once. It’s up to you, the author, to fix it from there.
After that, I focus on plot, character, pacing, all the basic developmental stuff since that’s sort of my jam.
My process as a writer…
I no longer use CPs. There. I said it.
I’ve been writing for the last fifteen years. I’ve worked with dozens of editors on every level of editing. I’ve studied the craft. I’ve mentee’d and mentored. I’ve workshopped and conferenced and spent the last fifteen years working with CPs extensively.
It’s not that I think I’m such a good writer that I don’t need feedback, it’s that I am too receptive to feedback.
There was a manuscript, we’ll call it “M”. I wrote it and got a dev edit from the lovely Jeni Chappelle. I followed her advice along with a half-dozen other CPs. I revised and revised and revised, determined to craft a perfect story. It was what everyone suggested and none of me so it couldn’t be a piece of shit anymore!
I submitted that story to a Pipeline and they said “Boring and unoriginal”.
Okay, so maybe more editing… I sent it to a mentorship who replied, “The synopsis has more voice than the pages.”
… I wrote that synopsis after a few glasses of wine and never looked at it again.
And this wasn’t a one-off situation. The manuscripts I queried after feedback didn’t receive as many requests as the manuscripts I’d sent without feedback. The less I revised, the more personalized the agent comments and the more engaged the readers.
I still have people read my stuff and I still receive feedback, but I just don’t implement it unless it’s truly sparking my joy. I also have the privilege of having editors at my disposal, so if I struggle with something, I send it their way. I know when it’s not working, even if I don’t quite know why.
So my process is this: I write a story.
It’s that simple. I open up word, I set up the format, and I type until the story is done. If I get that magic feeling that this is a story I want to query, I write the query early on and synopsis as I go.
While I studied the craft, the importance of a good query was lost on me up until recently. So that’s my new obsession: The Perfect Query. I still suck at queries, but I’m getting better.
So there you have it, my big long babble in an effort to write something even if its not a story. My fingers were itching to type. Writing is more of a compulsion for me than anything else, and it’s evident in my process.
I have no idea what to write next, but my fingers do…
Shayna Grissom Writes 
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