Top 3 Ways to Get Feedback on Your Writing

One of the things writers must do if they want to improve
is to get feedback on their work.

The wrong type of feedback, however, can destroy a story, and worse, break a writer’s spirit.

How can you tell the difference between the right and wrong type of feedback? And how can you improve your odds of getting the feedback that will be most helpful to your progress?

The Wrong Type of Feedback is Deadly to a Writer’s Career

Imagine your car is overheating. You take it to a mechanic, and that mechanic proceeds to tell you that the transmission is malfunctioning and you need to replace it. You pay $2,500 for him to do that, only to drive away from the mechanic’s shop and have your car overheat again. Worse, now the transmission is slipping in first gear.

You learn only after the fact that the so-called mechanic didn’t have any professional training. Instead, he was just someone who “believed” he was good at fixing cars—someone who managed to fool other people into believing it, too.

Now imagine something thousands of writers do every day: take their stories to writer’s groups, where they submit them for feedback to writers with little to no experience in writing or publishing. These group members tell the writer what’s “wrong” with her story, so she dutifully goes and “fixes it,” only to end up with a story that’s of worse quality than when she started.

It happens all the time. Most writers, in their heart of hearts, know something is off about the process. They know that the so-called “fixes” didn’t help, but hey, the group members said they would, so surely they must be right. They are readers after all.

Except that doesn’t qualify them to be critiquers, or editors.

If you’ve ever been through a tough critique, you know how it feels: lousy. Demoralizing. Depressing. But eventually, you get over the initial hurt and get to work “fixing” your story.

The problem is, if you’re taking direction from an unqualified source, that’s like taking your car to an unqualified mechanic. Not only does it hurt to hear everything that’s wrong with your project, but it’s going to hurt even worse after you go through the “repairing” process and then realize that nothing was fixed at all.

“But everyone is a reader!” you may protest. “Surely what they think matters?”

The more experience you gain as a writer, the better you’ll get at determining which feedback to pay attention to and which to discard. Can any reader be helpful? Often…to a point. Maybe one out of five of a person’s comments, for example, will ring true, and a writer might tend to that one part of the story.

When writers are new to getting feedback, though, they’re likely to absorb every criticism and try to fix it, and that’s often a mistake, because many criticisms are completely subjective—or just plain wrong. Trying to make every critiquer happy is likely to produce a convoluted story that no longer accomplishes the purpose the writer had in mind.

Even Qualified Editors Can Be Wrong at Times

The first thing a writer must do is make sure he’s taking his work to a qualified editor—someone with lots of experience editing stories like his, and who has a good reputation for editing prowess.

But even with a qualified editor, things can go wrong. I attended one writing workshop where a bestselling author totally annihilated several young writers, to the point that they never picked up a pen again. (Read more about my experience in the previous post, “How to Stop Writing Critiques from Destroying Your Creative Spirit.”)

Just because someone is a bestselling author doesn’t mean he or she will be a good editor or writing teacher. The two skills are entirely different.

A writer greatly improves his odds of getting quality feedback when taking his work to an experienced editor, but he still has to be cautious about evaluating that feedback.

3 Best Ways to Gain Effective Writer Feedback

Considering the many pitfalls of getting writing critiques, writers need to approach this important task carefully. It may be tempting to give your story to friends, family members, or just any writing group, but if you want to save yourself a lot of grief and misdirection—and gain real progress as a writer—it’s best to use one or more of the following techniques, instead.

1. Submit your story to a literary contest/workshop that offers critiques.

Many writing contests and workshops offer critiques as part of the entry or registration package. A number of them offer 2-3 critiques per submission. This creates a golden opportunity for a writer, as you can gain feedback from more than one person, and then compare the results. This helps for a couple reasons.

First, it proves to you how subjective critiques can be. We all know this logically, but it’s an entirely different experience to actually look at two or three critiques on the same story (or story excerpt) and see different comments. One critiquer says your dialogue is smashing, while another says it needs work. One loves your characters, and another says they’re too quirky.

As you review critiques like these, the idea that “everyone has an opinion” starts to sink into your heart. It’s a big relief, really, to realize that no matter what you do, you’re never going to please anyone. It can be a truly freeing experience.

Second, when you get more than one critique, you can look for comments that both have in common. If more than one person, for example, says your beginning is a little slow, then odds are your beginning needs work. If both were confused by the ending of your synopsis, that’s a good sign that your ending may need more attention.

If they disagree on something, however, it’s up to you, the author, to decide what to do. Trust your intuition, and either work on it or let it be.

Some contests/workshops that offer critiques as of the writing of this post include the following. (Find more by checking Poets & Writers, The Writer magazine, Writer’s Digest magazine, and other listing sources.) Keep in mind that you can also enter the same story into more than one contest or workshop critique in order to gain a variety of critiques that you can then compare.

• Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association (PNWA)
• Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest
• Jackson Hole Writer’s Conference (critiques)
• Write on the Sound Writer’s Conference (critiques)
• Saturday Writers Writing Contests
• Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Writers Day Contest

2. Hire a Professional Book Editor

Yes, this requires an investment on your part, but what better investment can you make than in your own professional development? You’d pay to take an educational class related to your work, wouldn’t you? So why not for your writing?

Again, be careful, and make sure you do your due diligence before hiring someone. Do a search on Google for “book editor,” check the ads in writing magazines and blogs, and look through your social media connections for professional editors. Review their qualifications, and check their social media profiles for signs of their professionalism. LinkedIn profiles may show recommendations, as well.

Narrow your choices down to 2-3 editors, and then try each one out. Ask if the editors would be willing to give you a sample edit of your first chapter for free or for a bargain price. Once you have their agreement, send the same story or excerpt out to each one, and then compare your results.

Again, this gives you a chance to compare critiques and focus on what they have in common, which provides you with solid feedback. Plus, it helps you find the editor that is most likely to work best for you. When you find that person, you can send them the rest of your story or novel with confidence.

Another option is to ask for an edit on a few chapters and a synopsis. Particularly if your book is still in progress, this can help you make some necessary adjustments before you go too far in the story.

I’ve never regretted investing in this type of review. Though I didn’t always act on every single suggestions made by my editors, I found most to be helpful overall.

3. Create Your Own Writing Critique Group

This exercise takes a bit more work, but it can get you some helpful results.

Scan your network for readers that are likely to be in your target audience—those you think would enjoy a story like yours. Then approach each one with some sort of offer. Should they agree to read your book and give you feedback within a designated time, you’ll give them something in return.

Options include a free copy of the work when it’s finished, a return edit when desired (if the person is another writer), a free copy of one of your other published books, or even an Amazon gift certificate.

Once you have at least five people willing to take the plunge, create a list of questions and send them along with your work. By creating a list of specific questions, you improve the odds that you’ll receive helpful feedback. Some possible questions may include:

• Were you confused at any point in the story? If so, where?
• Did you care what happened to the hero or heroine? Why or why not?
• Were you interested enough in the story to want to finish it?
• Who was your favorite character and why?
• Did you ever get bored while reading? Where?

Once you’ve turned the work and the questions over to your readers, be patient. Realize that not all of them are likely to follow through. If you get at least three critiques back, you’re good to go.

As you get closer to the deadline, send a friendly reminder that you’re grateful for your readers’ feedback. Feel free to send up to three reminders, then let it go.

Once you have the answers to your questions, go over them and compare them, and use only the feedback that will help you improve your story.

Some Quick Tips on Separating the Helpful Feedback from the Destructive Kind

The more you send your work out for critiques, the better you’ll get at deciphering those critiques. Meanwhile, always give yourself time to calm any emotions you may have before tackling a critique. Then keep these tips in mind when determining which comments to address.

• Opinions: Any comment that plainly expresses the reader or critiquer’s opinion or bias is generally destructive feedback. You don’t need to know how someone else would tell the story. You need help telling your story as well as you can, so dismiss those who tell you how they would write the story, or who get on their soapboxes criticizing what your story was about. If a writing workshop descends into everyone going on about “what if you had the main character do X?” or “I think you should really focus on the positive family elements more,” it’s time to check out.
• Confirmation: Any comment that makes you go, “Oh yes, I kind of worried about that myself” is good feedback. I’ve often found myself nodding my head when reading a critique, as I knew in the back of my mind the issue was there, but just couldn’t see it clearly enough. A critique can bring these shadowed issues out into the open.
• Vague: Feedback that is too vague, either on the positive or negative side, isn’t helpful. A simple, “Loved it, this is great!” gives you nothing to work with. That doesn’t mean positive comments aren’t helpful—they definitely are, as they give you insight into your writing strengths. But we’re talking about specific positive comments like, “your dialogue in this scene was very effective,” or “this setting description sucked me in.” Vague negative feedback is similarly unhelpful. “I just didn’t like it,” or “this isn’t going to sell” are good examples. They give you nothing to work with, so just ignore them.
• Consensus: As noted above, when two or more readers or editors agree on a point, that’s a good sign that it needs work. Always do your best to address these issues.
• Story Direction: Sometimes feedback may sound good initially, but then turn out to be wrong for the story. A reader may suggest you explore a minor character a bit more, but when you try it, you find that it actually changes the dynamic of the story or drags the story down. In the end, it’s your responsibility to make sure the story works well as a whole.
• Clarity: You may get conflicting feedback on a certain section of the story, where one reader is confused and another is not. You can choose to ignore the confused reader, but a better option may be to go back over the section and see if there’s any way you can make it clearer. Often there is a solution that doesn’t take away from your story, but will help make the important elements in the scene easier for all readers to grasp.
• Writer’s Intent: What did you intend to accomplish with your story? A good editor will help you do that. An unhelpful one will take you in a different direction—one that feels wrong to you, or that leaves you frustrated and discouraged. Edits aren’t easy, and changing your story to better fit your intent is a lot of work, but it will feel right to you. Feedback that results in your story no longer feeling like your story is feedback best ignored.

In the end, the most important thing is to trust yourself, and to go where your heart leads you. That doesn’t mean you should indulge yourself if you want to be lazy, or block out every comment that isn’t praise. But if you find that a critique has sent you on a downward spiral, rescue yourself.

Take a break and get back to writing for fun, then be sure to protect yourself on your next feedback-seeking mission. Get multiple critiques, employ qualified people, and be discerning about which comments to address.

If you go about it this way, your writing will improve, and more importantly, you’ll discover more about what makes your writing unique—which is the key to becoming the artist you were meant to become.

How do you get quality feedback on your writing?