Feedback Woes
Hello dear reader!
I have seen a few posts floating around Twitter lately about feedback and Beta Readers. A few months back I posted my thoughts on how to be a good beta reader. Today I’d like to discuss some thoughts for writers who are on the receiving end of the feedback.
First: It’s going to suck. Everyone’s first draft sucks. Unless you’re a miracle prodigy, your first draft will be bad. You have to let it be bad. The really, really hard part is sharing that bad work and being open to feedback about how to make it better. But if you want it to get better, you have to do it.
Now, hopefully, you have a kind and gracious beta reader or editor who can help you through the process of improving upon your first couple of drafts with lots of tact and good feedback. If you don’t, I can sympathize. And sometimes even if you have an excellent beta reader or editor, they will say something with the best of intentions because they want to help, and it will hurt. It might hurt a lot. Getting feedback is an emotional roller coaster of euphoria and the seven levels of hell. (For me, at least.) I’m told this gets easier with time and as your writing improves. But especially for those of us who are novices, it’s going to feel awful. I am told often this is just part of the process and everyone goes through it.
I went through art school, and I felt like I had pretty thick skin in terms of being able to handle critical feedback on my work. It did help in some ways. However, it did not fully prepare me to hear things like:
“Such and such character gives me creepy rapist vibes.” Wow. Ouch. Ok, I was definitely not aiming for that, but duly noted. I see I have some changes to make.
“You did everything right in the prologue and then you lost me in chapter one, I couldn’t make it past chapter four.” Alright. Tell me how you really feel. Don’t hold back now.
“You need to work on point of view (POV). I felt seasick reading your manuscript.” We’ll come back to this one in a minute.
“Is any of this really necessary?” Well, yeah I thought it was necessary or I wouldn’t have written it!
Anyway, I think that’s enough. You get the idea. I have had some fantastic beta readers and some not-as-fantastic beta readers. If you have beta readers or even professional editors, chances are you’re going to get both very well-thought-out feedback and some less tactful feedback at some point in your writing career. All of it has something to teach you. Even if it’s hurtful.
One thing Dustin and Phil have talked me through a few times is learning to distinguish between “this is an objective issue” and “this is my [the reader’s] opinion”. Logically I understood this, but it took me a bit to really realize or understand that not everything my beta readers/editors suggest is gospel. Not every comment needs to be addressed. As an example: In some of my above comments I had one reader tell me they got seasick from “head hopping” or changing POV too often. I think this was on my 4th draft. So I went through and made massive changes to the entire manuscript which took months. While I did learn some things in the process, I was ultimately very unhappy about it and only did so because I trusted this individual as a professional and ‘thought I was doing the right thing and everyone would hate my book if I didn’t’.
Fast forward about six to eight months and I read a book called Receiver of Many. The POV style is almost identical to what I had done in the earlier versions of A Songbird’s Tale. I really liked the book. (Content warning, Receiver of Many is extremely explicit and not suitable for all readers, the author also makes a note of this at the beginning of the book as well.) The head hopping did not bother me at all. I really like getting to dart around and see things from different characters’ perspectives. This book is rated at 4.6 stars with over 1000 reviews on Amazon and 3.9 stars with over 3000 reviews on Goodreads. In my opinion, that’s not bad at all. I’ll be thrilled if my book does that well. Also, none of the complaints that I read had anything to do with POV. Just saying. In the end, I probably could have cleaned up what I had, rather than doing the major overhaul that I did if I had stuck to my guns and not been persuaded by considering that someone else was more of an expert than I am at how my own book should go. Did I learn some things? Sure. Will I be as quick to make major changes after feedback from an ‘expert’? Nope.
Now. I’m not saying not to listen to your beta readers. If your beta readers are telling you something doesn’t ring true, it is worth looking at, especially if multiple readers mention it. Even if their feedback is hurtful, most readers are just genuinely trying to help. I really did not want a certain character in my book to have creepy rapist vibes. So as hard as that feedback was to hear, I really had to go look at how I had written them and how I could make improvements. If a reader is asking if a scene is really necessary, it’s probably a good idea to consider if it can be cut or not. Dustin tends to be much, MUCH more succinct in his writing than I am, but he gives some good tips to help you decide. Slow pacing and boring scenes will turn your readers off and can be the death of a good story.
In summary — getting feedback can be really hard, and painful, and emotional, and sometimes people will say mean things (probably unintentionally) and will hurt your feelings. However, this is a very important part of the writing process, and it is worth going through the proverbial seven levels of hell to make your writing the best that it can be.
Till next time dear readers and dear writers if anyone needs a beta reader, I’d be happy to help you out! I promise to use all the tact I can muster. Feel free to hit me up on Twitter @Fliffani or Instagram @breakfast_at_fliffanis and we can chat about it. I’d love to hear from you! <3 Tiff
