The Journey to Writing a Successful Story: a tip book

How to Take Feedback

The other day, I created a chapter about giving feedback and how to make a critique. This time, I'm making a chapter about how to take the advice and not be so defensive.

Yes, many of you are probably defensive over your work and think that the critic is wrong. You either yell at them, delete their comments, or just make sure that they're wrong with everything they said.

First of all, if you can't take feedback (meaning any type of negative comments towards your book) then don't ask for a critic. And if you can't take feedback, don't post your work on the internet.
You're probably saying by now, "But I want to post my work..." The thing is, this is the internet with tons of people who give their opinions and sometimes, their opinions won't always be nice. Just take a look at YouTube comments.

Now, yes, Wattpad is supposed to be a nice community, but is it always going to give you the amazing comments you want every single time? No. There will be someone who will come to your book unexpectedly and rip your writing apart. This website is full of serious writers who will do that, whether you like it or not. If you can't take that, then it's best to stay off the website and write your stories in secret. Come back when you can take feedback.

Even if your work is the best thing in the world, it won't be. I have said this again and again, and the answer is still the same. We all have taste. If, to you, something is the best in the world, it won't be to someone else. There are tons of people out there who love Harry Potter, and there are tons of people out there who hate that book and those movies. There are tons of people out there who think Twilight is the best book in the world, and there are tons of people who think it sucks balls. There are tons of people out there who hate Johnny Depp, Disney movies, Toy Story movies, and pickles! But there are tons of people out there who love them! 'K? Do you see where I'm going?

Don't yell at the people who give you feedback. They're just trying to help you make your book better. They spent time that they did not have in reading your book and giving you advice. It does take a while, do note.

Don't delete their comments. If you enter in revision, you can take their advice into consideration and find out if their advice is best to make their book better. If you delete the comments, you won't have anything to go on, meaning you won't be able to improve with learning from your mistakes. I once critiqued a book, gave my advice, and they deleted my comments. It took me four hours to do it! Four hours! That made me feel real bad.

Don't comment them saying everything they said was wrong about your story. Yes, a lot of critics these days go off of opinions, but it depends on what they said. If it deals with grammar, punctuation, and spelling errors, it can't be opinionated... maybe. But even then, take everything into consideration.

You don't have to like what they say. Just say, "Thank you for taking the time to critique my work," and leave it at that.

Take everything into consideration. Look over your work while looking over the list of advice. Don't be stupid and say, "I think this is completely fine," when it's not. Keep your mind open to any new possibilities.

Taking their advice into consideration doesn't mean accepting everything they say. It just means looking over their advice and thinking if it's good enough to change. You won't change everything that they say because maybe it's opinionated and wrong when it comes to the book. But you may change some things that are on the list.

Don't take everything to heart. They aren't trying to hurt your feelings. They're just trying to help you understand that your book isn't great and needs improvement. It may feel horrible when you get people telling you that your book isn't amazing, because we don't want to be told that our creations are bad, but it has to be done if you want to improve.

You can write for a hobby, but if you're posting on the website or any other internet-related thing, you will be told your faults no matter what. And even if it's for a hobby, it may be best to improve your work. It's like hearing your sibling play an instrument really loud. They're playing it for a hobby, but it's killing your ears and you can't think with all that racket. But if they learned how to play that instrument well, it may not be so bad. You may end up actually liking what they play.

That's how this is.

And critics, if you find yourself in this position where a writer is dissing you because you're critiquing them and can't take it, if you want, you can send them to this chapter.