Posted by TayariJones on July 28, 2009 09:34 AM
Filed under
The Writing Life
I have heard back from many of the members of Team T and now it’s time to figure out what to do with their feedback. This is something that lots of writers deal with, particularly those who work in workshop settings. Of course, the big difference between Team T and a typical workshop is that I had the luxury of choosing the members of Team T and there is no one on the team whose opinions I don’t value. Below is a sort of guide to how I process feedback. (It’s applicable to the workshop setting if you first weed out the people who you don’t value.)
Thank Everyone. Reading a manuscript well is hard work. Even if you aren’t thrilled with the comments, you must be thankful that someone took the time to read the draft and give considered feedback. In a workshop class, you can just thank the people after the session, or you can catch them by the vending machine. This step is just a matter of courtesy; it also puts you in the proper frame of mind as you read through the comments. These folks have done you a favor. Go forth with gratitude.
Read through the responses one team member at a time. Take each reader’s comments separately. Read through with a highlighter, marking things that may seem important to you. Make notes in the margin. Don’t start fooling with the manuscript yet.
Fix the things that you immediately agree need fixing. Inconsistencies, confusing transitions, stuff like that. Go in and clean all that mess up. If a reader says “I was confused” by this or that thing, you just get in there and make it clear. It’s not sexy work, but it has to get done.
Look for similarities in the comments. If everyone in the bunch is weirded out by chapter four, it’s probably not working—I don’t care how much you like it. I would give consideration to something that struck two out of three readers. Three out of five, you must address it. Remember, you picked your team because you value their opinions.
Listen as much to the vibe of the comment as much to the specifics of it. Readers can sometimes be like patients in the dentist’s chair. Just last year, I was convinced that a certain tooth was killing me. Well, I was correct that something was really amiss, but I was wrong about which tooth. The dentist (God bless her) was able to listen to my complaint and figure out which tooth needed drilling. Sometimes you have to be like that. A very good reader can point out that there’s a problem, but she may be dead wrong about how to fix it.
When you love something that one of your readers hates, sit with it a while. You may be able to split the difference and improve the work. You may decide to respectfully disagree, but you have to think it over. One of my readers had an issue with the novel, that I didn’t think was important, but after sitting on it a while, I incorporated some of her suggestion. But let me tell you, my first reaction was to go all Amy Winehouse, “No, no, no.”
It’s fine to ask the readers for more feedback. I know that under the workshop model, you have to sit silently while you work is discussed, but once the workshop is over you can certainly ask for more feedback. If one of my readers comments on something and no one else mentions it, I may ask one of the other readers what she thinks. I may even go back to the person who made the original comment and ask more questions.
Thank everyone again. And get to work.
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Hilarity, with the Winehouse reaction. :) That's gotta be every artists' first response. I had the privilege of a very veteran editor helping me with a piece and - while there actually was one scene that ONLY this editor seemed to read incorrectly - there were many more instances of thanking my lucky stars I'd sat on my hands so as not to respond until I'd reread the comments several days later. She did not call my baby ugly. I did not need to avenge it. :) And rework it, I did. Even I was happier with the result.
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