5 Reasons You Should Accept Feedback

1.  And this is the most important one...Does it sound right?  Do you get it?  Does it make you feel that the doors to Paradise have suddenly swung open and you can now see the light?   Yes?  Then grab the feedback with both hands and implement it.

2.  Sometimes feedback is right, but the solution is wrong.  People like being helpful, so they like giving a solution alongside what they see as the problem.  Sometimes they can't articulate the problem, they just know they have a solution for it.

For example, the feedback might go along the lines of:   "You could make your main character take a job at the local supermarket."  That's a solution.  The problem is something like, "The main character is a bit wishy washy and I find it really irritating that they sit back and expect other people to sort out their financial problems for them - they need to take some action that shows they are at least trying to support themselves financially."

That sort of feedback is golden: now you can work out what the action that they're going to take will be.

3.  Feedback is all about how a reader perceives the character and the situation.  This will almost certainly be coloured by their own experiences.  However, if several readers are pointing out the same issues, then you can be fairly certain that's a true response.  Act accordingly.

4.  Sometimes you're too close to see it.  Writers spend a lot of time in their heads.  We might appear to be going for a walk, driving the car, or doing the washing up but really we're busy writing stories in our head.  These stories are always brilliant - I'm frequently walking around with tears rolling down my face as the tragedy in my head unfolds, or laughing inappropriately because one of my characters has just done something incredibly funny.

The trouble is what works in our heads doesn't always translate to the page.  When we look at the page, we might see what we wrote in our head, not what we've actually written.  A reader can only read what's on the page, and not what's in your head.  A sure sign of this is when you find yourself explaining what's going on to a puzzled reader and how they have missed the point.  Stop!  It's your job to write clearly enough so they don't miss the point.

5. If we're honest with ourselves, we sometimes have little niggles about the work that we hope will magically go away if we don't think about them.  Perhaps, we hope, perhaps no one else can see that glitch in the story.  Feedback can good for confirming that those glitches do exist and somehow we've got to deal with them.  Sigh.  I wish it wasn't like that and the glitches would magically disappear by ignoring them but there it is.    They don't.

5 Reasons When (and Why) You Should REJECT Feedback

A former student got in touch with me about some feedback he'd had from his writing group about his planned novel.  He wanted to know what I thought of it (the feedback, not the novel) and should he accept it? So I had a think... and my answer was No.  Here's why:

1)  This was feedback about what he proposed to do i.e. his plans for his novel.  They were commenting on something that hadn't been written, so in effect were assessing its market viability.  Now, I'm sure the feedback came with the best of intentions, but the question has to be: were they qualified to comment on 'the market'?  Unless they were all experienced agents, editors or publishing marketeers, then I'd say no.  And it should be noted that even the most experienced agents, editors and marketeers get it wrong frequently.  Basically, no one knows where the market is going to be in two months time, let alone two years. It's pretty much all guess work.

2) The feedback was also concerned about plausibility: he was writing about a location he wasn't a native of, nor had lived in. Would any potential buyers accept this?  Well, why on earth not?  Yes, some authors are writing based on autobiography, but a lot - most? - don't.  And there have been many best sellers written by authors who've never set foot in their setting - what about Steph Penney and The Tenderness of Wolves, or Martin Cruz Smith and Gorky Park to name two.

3) Do readers know or care about an author's background if the story is good?  A successful novelist I know writes tender romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon. Does it matter that, despite the feminine name on the cover, the writer is a strapping male former paratrooper? Is JK Rowling a wizard for that matter?

4) Sometimes the feedback is factually wrong.  Too early to say in this case, but before I was published and in a similar feedback group, one of the group had written a story aiming for a specific slot on Radio 4. Using my knowledge as a former actress, I thought the dual narrative split between male and female narrators would cause problems for casting a sole reader.  Luckily the author didn't pay any attention to my advice, sent the story in and it was broadcast (with a male reader).

5) Writing a novel is hard enough work as it is.  If you don't write what you really, really want to write, if you don't write the book of your heart, if you don't write from your gut, then why write?

So, that's what I thought, and why.  But that doesn't mean my advice was right.  The only person who can decide is the author themselves.

But Even the Good Go Wrong...

Thinking about advice, and the comments after the last post, and a little niggle of doubt started to form somewhere in my gut.  I'm guilty of giving advice that hasn't worked for the writer and which has put them off.  

The first time I can think of, I completely misjudged the situation.  I was told that the story wasn't autobiographical and like a dimwit I took the statement at face value.  Oh dear.  I can't remember the details, but in the text the narrator appeared to loathe her parents which I commented on.  It did not go down well.  I stuck to my point; what was written on the page was loathing, and if the writer wanted it to be loving, then the text needed changing.  This didn't go down well either.  

Actually, most of the time when things haven't gone well, it's been when there has been a strong autobiographical element.  The time I asked, 'Your narrator is coming across as rather shallow and immature - is that what you intended?'  was another low point as the comment was taken personally (in a rather shallow and immature way, I suppose).

So I know that I'm guilty of putting people off.  I'm sorry if that's you.  My intentions were to be helpful and useful, and I think the advice I've offered has been good.  But then, I would say that, wouldn't I?   

Is Advice Always Helpful?

Recently I've come across two instances of people giving a writer what they genuinely considered to be helpful advice. Both times they were being supportive: take no notice of that criticism, was the gist of it. You're a wonderful writer.

Hmm. I'm all for being supportive, and there are times when we need the back up from our friends and family regardless of the facts, but I don't think it's always helpful. There was a comment in the paper last week from Martin Freeman (the new Dr Watson) about this. He remarked on those people who auditioned for shows like the X Factor who had been told by their family they could sing, and then were cruelly exposed on national television.

In both these instances, although the supporters were being kind, I felt that some tougher talking would be better. Constructive criticism may hurt sometimes, but in real life we can't all win the race, we can't all get a certificate just for entering. Sometimes you need to know that what you've done isn't good enough. It's hard, but there it is.

And if you know it isn't good enough, you have the chance to make it better, and that's the great thing about writing. You can always make it better.

Whose Advice Is It Anyway?

At the Romantic Novelists Association conference I attended lots of talks, some wonderful and others a bit less so. In one, some of the information given was directly at odds with what I'd advise. So, who is right?*

The answer is - we both could be. There are no absolutes in writing. What works for one reader won't work for another. What one editor loves may be loathed by another. The requirements for one agent will differ from another (Carole Blake, for example, in From Pitch to Publication wants a lengthy synopsis and full character breakdowns, but most editors and agents in my experience want a brief synopsis, a page or 2 at the most). I was told by a friend that they'd had a positive response from an agent to their covering letter being actually a pussy cat card as they'd heard the agent was a cat lover. It's not something I'd advise - but it worked.

Use your common sense. Someone asked me recently about putting recommendations from friends and family into their covering letter, as had been advised by a tutor on a course they'd been to. I was horrified and gave the opposite advice. I reckon it's only common sense - of course your mum loves it, she loves you and unless she's the book buyer for Tesco her opinion doesn't mean anything except make you look amateurish. That seems commonsense to me.

Commonsense says that manuscripts should be easy and pleasant to read, so double spacing and one side of the paper only are good ideas. Ditto black ink on white paper: in fact, the 'rules' regarding format for manuscript presentation are all about commonsense. Is it easy to read? Then do it.

I write my novels in one long document and put it into chapters at the very last minute. I've got my reasons for doing this, and I think they're pretty good ones that I advise other writers to follow, but it might not work for you. If it helps, do it, if not, discard. Use your commonsense.

*(The correct answer here is me, of course.)

At last! I've got my finger out and have committed to running some day courses:

Writing a Novel - 31st July in Bath and 18th September in Truro

Getting a Novel Published - 1st August in Bath and 19th September in Truro

Contact me on sarah@sarahduncan.co.uk for more info...