The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

How to Give Feedback

I see many people giving crappy feedback, especially those in the Find a Critic thread (ahem, yes, I'm talking to you!)

So I decided to give you a run-down on how you can give feedback properly.

Now, you may get a few people thinking that you're some judgmental freak because you gave your opinion. But if I have to be honest here, you can't please everyone with what you say. Even if you try to not be rude, it'll most likely come rude to others.

See, if you're not telling them how amazing their story is and praising them on your hands and knees, you're a jerk. That's how they see it.

So you can't just write constructive criticism without it being offensive. The writer needs to learn how to take it and not take it to the heart. It's their fault. But then again, do all of us really want our books destroyed? If you say yes, you're not human. Ha! But seriously... our books are our babies. That's why we seek for opinions because we can't see anything wrong with it - we can't destroy our own creation.

How do we give feedback the right way?

Well, the first and most important thing is to be honest. Always, always, always be honest. No matter what. You can't be honest? Don't give feedback. Are you scared to be honest? That's all right; we don't want to hurt their feelings. But as a critic myself (and no, I'm not reading and giving you feedback) you have to be honest even if it hurts their feelings. Hey, the truth hurts sometimes. And that's the truth!

I think it's best to give them the positives first. Look through the story and find anything that can be used as a pro. And no, not something stupid, like a sentence. Characters, plot, summary, whatever. Just give them a thumbs up for making that great.

Then you get serious.

Don't critique someone if all you're going to say is, "There's a few issues here and there, but those can be fixed in a jiffy. Other than that, I love it!" No one wants to hear that.

Yes, I've made this mistake in the past, but I've tried to actually point out their faults.

Now, you maybe asking me, "Why shouldn't I do that?" And you maybe defending yourself and saying, "It's the first draft! They can find them and fix them later!" I'm sorry, but that's just an excuse for not taking the time to write out your critique and point out their flaws.

You don't have to write an entire chapter for them, but just point out a few of the mistakes. If they do the same mistake over and over again, just say so. But do point out a few for examples.

You don't point out the grammar mistakes and leave, though. You have to go deeper than that.

You can start off with some basics. How is the summary? Is it catchy? How can they improve it? For instance; you can show them why the summary isn't able to capture your attention, then you explain how and give them a redone summary by you, in order for them to see the difference.

Then you go back to the story (although, it doesn't have to be in this order). How well do they write with the person (first, third?) - meaning... does the way they write satisfy the reader, just generally? Do they need to show more details? If so, what types (scenery, reactions, actions, thoughts, emotion)? How good are their paragraphs (too short, too long)?

You can continue with the mistakes with tense issues, character depths (how realistic and relate-able the characters are), and even seeing how realistic the situations are.

So you continue on with answering different types of questions regarding their writing. Giving them the overall at the end.

The overall is answering these few questions: How good is the book overall? And does it have potential, not thinking about the mistakes?

This means that yes, you may have to come up with saying: Overall, though, I don't exactly think this book is that great and has potential.

But if it gets to that point, you then continue on saying something like:

But if you revise your story, allow my advice to be kept in your mind for consideration, look at it from all angles, and keep your eye on it (meaning to edit as you go or before you say it's "finished and ready to be published,") you can have yourself a book that has potential.

This way, you're not crushing their "hopes and dreams" of becoming a writer and making them think they're just trash that can never be brought in for art. You're having them think, "My story may look like it's crappy, but hey, maybe if I do keep their advice in mind and learn from it, maybe I can make my book better?"

Throughout the critique, you would give them a list of their faults and a list of ways to improve those faults.

Now, you will find books that you won't have anything good to say or books that have nothing bad to say. When you get to those books that have no positives, you just skip right to the critique.

When you get to those books that have only positives, don't just say, "I love this!" or "This is amazing!" Why not give them reasons as to why you love it and think it's amazing? Give them all the details. Your favorite parts, what you liked about the chapter, and so on!