Ever had the feedback dilemma? Here’s the goss on how to do it:
I’ve had this interesting question from Jan.
A friend has finished drafting her first novel. She asked me to proofread before she sends it to agents. I explained she would up her chances if she got it edited too, so she asked if I could do that.
I’m reading the manuscript and have found what I feel are fundamental issues. For instance, I’m 57 pages in and nothing dramatic has happened, I still don’t know the theme of the book, or what any of the characters are driving towards. There is a lot of description, but I haven’t been able to discern its purpose.
I really want her to have the best chance, so how do I essentially ask her to rewrite from scratch? She’s proud of the manuscript; (she should be, she wrote 92,000 words and had the dedication to stick to it). I’m trying to work out the…
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Thanks for sharing this! It’s great advice 🙂
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It’s great advice, but still hard.
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Absolutely and I’m sure the reactions vary.
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They do. Unpredictable at the best of times.
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Thanks for sharing this! I reblogged it on my site as well. Excellent advice.
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Great minds! I think even if we’ve done it for a while, it’s good to get a reminder of how to do it well. For me, especially, as I tend to be a bit blunt sometimes.
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I agree.
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Thanks for sharing, Cage…. and Tara and Book Club Mom!
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I think we all know how much it matters!
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You can only tell her the truth. I’d get another couple of opinions to see if a range of critique could make it less personal perhaps?
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Do people do that? I tell the truth when I’m critiquing, but it still offends people. It’s not personal, it’s the work, but people think they are their story, or that the story is their baby. And, more than anything, I think we all have that thing in our heads that keeps saying, ‘it’s the best thing ever, it’s perfect, they’re going to love it,’ until we get the feedback that says it amateurish, lacking, and unstructured.
It took me many years to find one person who gave honest feedback (I don’t like sugarcoating), and the most common feedback is dead flat silence – from which we learn nothing.
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Agreed, I have been offered several contacts as editors, all whom I know, and it is far too much a burden to place on the relationship in my view. Probably needs a contract where there’s a clause that says: by ticking this box you are acknowledging that this process could terminate our friendship. 🙂 it sure changes it though.
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The ones with the desperate passion remain, maybe with a new scar, but they take it as a mark of battles entered, and forge on …
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Ah, the desperate passion (dependent?) I worry about them, because I always disappoint.
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Not sure I understand … how can a person be disappointed when they’re learning something new and exciting and being helped by honest readers/friends/fellow scribblers?
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They imagine I’m just stamping their brilliance with approval.
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*stunned face emoji*
*choke*
No one is brilliant, no artist is ever good enough to stop taking advice and feedback. There is no perfect, there is only better than the last, because of the learning done between the old and the new …
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True, but who knows the psychology of those who come for help, there is no perfect, but I suspect some think so differently to us.
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Such good advice. I’ll remember it if anyone asks me for a similar favour.
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When I put my first extract up for critique in a ‘proper’ writer’s group, I got a lot of ‘this has got legs’ type comments. It took me months to understand that that comment essentially meant ‘this is shit, but I reckon you can make it better’. 🙂
Years later, I gave a manuscript to two friends to read through, which they did, and gave honest feedback. However, it wasn’t until I sent it off to be professionally assessed that I got what I needed: comprehensive—but not brutal—feedback about all its flaws (and there were a lot!) and a pointing out of some of the good bits, too.
My opinion? I don’t think friends can adequately assess a manuscript. There’s too much water under the bridge.
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I agree — friends do not make for good critiquers, unless they are also writers at the same stage as you (and they keep up the learning).
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See Cage, I always knew you to be a sensible person 😀😀
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… just don’t tell anyone, okay?
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Your secret is safe with me 😉
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And the worst response I’ve ever rec’d is: beautifully written.
The ‘but’ is hidden, waiting to spring …
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Oh those ‘buts’!!
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