Feedback vs abuse

I’ve been taking a lot of writing classes lately. A lot of my friends seem confused by this, but I try to look at it as, “We all have something to learn” and I know that what I schedule gets done. It’s much easier to schedule writing time if I have classes.

Taking classes and workshopping pieces means I’ve been thinking about feedback a lot, reading a lot about feedback, and processing feedback. While it’s great to be open to feedback and opportunities to refine the art of writing, everyone has opinions and anything, yes absolutely anything, could be critiqued. I have seen short stories that are victims of multiple critique groups and a diligent writer’s attempt to incorporate everyone’s helpful suggestions. The result is just a mess that nobody is happy with.

Another thing I’ve seen and heard a lot is that the only helpful feedback is harsh or critical feedback and that positive feedback is not helpful. This is false.

I know. A lot of people scratch their heads at this. Here’s the thing: we’re sensitive about art we create and humans don’t process negative input well. Nobody likes criticism. It makes everyone defensive and shuts down what we need to be creative.

Also, how much you “like” or “enjoy” a piece presented for critique isn’t all that relevant. If it’s not something that you’ve commissioned, that doesn’t matter at all. What matters is whether or not the writer is achieving what she wants to achieve.

Rather than focusing on finding “two goods and a bad” or some other method of creating what I like to call “the shit sandwich,” it is much more helpful to share the emotions that arise for you as you read the piece. It’s even fair to share if you feel confused or even a bit bored at certain points. Nitpicking what you see as clichès isn’t helpful. Sharing whether or not you “like” a character isn’t particularly helpful. Unless you’re an expert on something that comes up in the text, whether or not something “seems believable” to you isn’t particularly helpful.

Additionally, it’s important to consider where in the drafting phase the piece is. Some workshops encourage writers to proof and polish their pieces prior to submission (I support this) while others encourage writers to submit whatever they have (I do not support this.) In general, as a critiquer, we assume that if someone shares something on the date pieces are due for critique, that’s implicitly saying, “Please critique this as if it were a final draft.” If you know anything about writing, you already know that if something is the “Oh no! I have to get this in by midnight and it’s 11:30 p.m.” draft, it’s going to change substantially between the first version and the end product. So why waste your time and everyone else’s nitpicking word choice and punctuation when most of it will be slashed anyway?

I know it’s hard not to pick. I go after zits. I go after typos in ARCs and I especially love finding them in final printings, but realistically, we can all look up the rules. If you want to feel validated in being right and the writer being wrong, go you, but don’t delude yourself into thinking that’s helpful.

A good critique should make your critique partners see possibilities and want to write more. Berating someone over word choice or other stuff you don’t care for in a setting where they are only allowed to respond with “Thank you” or a question that is basically “Please, Sir, I’d like some more” is abuse.