Floundering in Feedback (Part 1 of 3)

in #editing5 years ago


 

Dealing with peer review feedback can be absolutely brutal. It's painful enough that many people shy away from the process time and again even if they know the feedback would help them. No matter how much you love and respect your critique partners, it hurts sometimes.

Knowing they're competent editors can even make it worse, especially if they disagree. You don't want to become one of those people who seemingly ignores feedback or deletes problematic lines because you can't figure out how to fix it. If you add in a contest or prompt deadline, an emotionally intense story, or a pile of rejections, you might just feel like giving up and going to bed to cry.

I'm not talking in theory here. I'm talking from personal experience and I refuse to be ashamed to admit it. Wanting to do the best by your story and to learn everything you can from your feedback should never be shameful. I know in my heart that all the editing decisions are ultimately mine, but that puts a huge burden of stress on me when I want to do the right thing. And I don't generally cope well with stress. Which thing is right? Am I making it worse?

You know what my biggest fear is? That my crit team will see me struggling and be afraid to be honest in their feedback next time because they don't want to hurt me or break me.

I'm a leader in my peer review group and some members may look up to me. So although I kept my recent breakdown pretty private, I'm outing myself to the world in the hope that it gives just one person the strength to ask for help when they need it and to find a path out of the confusion that doesn't involve a trash can or giving up.

I have a potential solution to offer, thanks to Andrew Savage, Damian Jay Clay, and Jasmine Arch. They talked me through the emotional breakdown and, even better, together we found a solution that got my story ready to go on time.

Recruit a Lead Editor

What I needed was a lead editor--one person I trusted to walk through the story and all the confusing feedback with me and talk it out and help me make the right choices. In this case, Andrew took on the monstrous job (a 4500 word story that ended up needing a pretty extensive rewrite and doing it all in less than a day).

The lead editor should go through the feedback with you and help weigh options for if and how to apply it. In some cases, they need to step in and say they believe option A or option B is better to cut out some of the input that is confusing you and help you move forward. Or to say, "Yeah, I don't agree with this at all. Skip it."

But the biggest thing a lead editor does is calm you down, remind you you can do this, and talk you through your decision process to help you make the choice that's right for you and your story. Instead of leaving you lost in a sea of words with conflicting currents, they throw you a life ring, haul you aboard their rescue ship, and weather the storm with you. Things are so much easier when you aren't alone.

The two key points in choosing your lead editor are your trust level and their availability.

You have to be comfortable handing your baby over to this person and know they'll do their best to help you meet your goals. You have to trust their ability to see beyond the feedback to consider the causes of the issues people are trying to fix. And you have to trust them to leave the story as your story in the voice you think is right and not remake it in their own vision when you give them the power to guide you through the tough calls.

The other thing is they have to be willing and available to do it. If you're fighting a deadline, it doesn't help if they're overwhelmed with work and don't have time until next week.

Depending on your time frame and the complexity and size of your project, this can be a really big time investment for them. It is far more intense than a regular peer review critique.

What you need is a live editing partner, at least long enough to create a plan to tackle the most stressful feedback. One clear voice out of the maelstrom to focus on.

Clarify Your Vision and Goals

Figuring out what was important to me with the story was a necessary first step. Sometimes reviewers have advice that seems great but changes the shape of the story. If you're working on a deadline, how important it is to you as an author to meet that deadline can have a huge impact on your options.

My primary goal was making a solid, potentially saleable story that I'd be proud of having my pen name on. Part of my insecurity was working outside my usual genre and fearing there were genre norms I wasn't familiar with. Yes, a great story transcends genre labels but when you add the saleable aspect of my goal, it does matter what publications I want to have consider it are likely to expect and want.

I also was terrified of being "that person" and not taking feedback my story really needed or making it worse by haphazardly cutting things. I'm told I have the opposite problem--I tend to take on too much feedback when sometimes it isn't right for me or the story.

My role in my community is important to me and I don't believe any of us should be above seriously considering the feedback of other members. Not just their concrete suggestions, but what underlying issue they might be trying to solve with them yet be unable to express.

I also really wanted to finish in time for a certain submission call, because I'd planned on it for a month. I'd been failing a lot of goals lately, so failing that too was going to hurt.

The whole situation was making me question my ability to be a writer at all. I really was close to saying "I'm an editor and that's all I'll ever be." Actually, I'm pretty sure I did actually say that, probably stubbornly and repeatedly.

For other people, the primary goal might be adhering to a vision they have for the story, maintaining a particular theme, or keeping character B if there is any reasonable way to do so.

Be honest about what your goal really is with your lead editor. They have to know to help you meet it.

Identify Backup Options

A particular cause of stress is often a deadline for a particular contest or market. There is never a guarantee you'll win or be accepted anyway. Rejection is the norm in a writer's life. So figure out a backup plan. If nothing else, it's what you would do if the story loses or is rejected.

Sometimes the consequences of failing aren't as dire as we think they'll be. I looked into the next submission period for my intended market and discussed some alternative markets that also would be a good fit. Yes, I felt like I'd have a better shot at acceptance with this special submission call, but sending out a story I didn't have confidence in also had consequences--I'd have no second shot at this market for this story if they rejected it.

If your situation involves a prompt, you might need to consider how well your story could function independently of the prompt. If the contest-specific aspects are essential to the story so options are limited outside it, you have less to lose by skipping feedback requiring more complicated resolution.

For me getting a backup plan eased my stress. If I failed, I'd still have to deal with the emotional impacts of failing my goals. I'd have to face my chronic health issues again thwarting something important to me. Trying as hard as I could and knowing I'd done my best eased that pain, but if either of us burnt out and we had to quit, the work wasn't wasted, because I was one step closer next month.

Our plan became to finish it for this market if possible. If we failed or they rejected it, I'd do more thorough peer review at a relaxed pace before submitting elsewhere. When I say more thorough, I mean of the rewrite. It had actually had two rounds of review in my full group, as well as feedback on sections multiple times from a few people when I was struggling. But sometimes stories need five or six rounds before they're ready.

Maybe your best choice is to put the story aside for a while until things calm down. Never underestimate the benefit of rest for a story. There is nothing wrong with putting your peer reviewed story on a shelf for a week or two or a month or even longer before processing their feedback. Wait until you're less stressed and emotional and not panicking. I seriously considered that option and resting is still in my "if it gets rejected" plan.

Make Backups

Backup all the feedback you can and your original text. This is especially important if you might make some expedient choices. Sadly I'd already panic-resolved some feedback without a copy, so we had to run off my memory of what I changed and why. Some lines got dug out of a two-revision-old backup for comparison or restoration.

If you backup things and your revision with your lead editor doesn't work out for any reason, you can later compare copies and feedback and make different choices without wasting more of your crit partners' time.


Floundering in Feedback was written by R. Jean Bell for the INKubator Community blog.


This article is part one of a three part series. Tune in on Tuesday for Part 2 and on Thursday for Part 3. These parts will continue the process for working with your lead editor and making sense of the overwhelming feedback.


Cover art is by geralt on Pixabay.


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This is an important and very much appreciated message. I think we all might, at some point or another, feel like we're drowning and unable to figure out how or where to start with applying feedback, not to mention that it's not always easy or possible for the writer to see through it and down to the cause of the symptom pointed out.

I've been mindful about it ever since the conversation earlier on Ink about this and now, reading the in-depth, it's eye-opening and comforting to know "I'm not alone" and that it's okay. Most importantly, that there's nothing wrong with asking for help.

I for one will be opening up more in the workshop and letting my friends help and guide me through the storm. Writing may be a solitary venture but editing doesn't have to be.

Thank you for this, Bex!

This is what the group is here for. Supporting each other. It's time we embraced all of what that means.

The best part of this is that perseverance paid off. The story turned out great!

It's fortunate we have the community to help each other through all this stuff.

Feedbacks are great especially for writes but not should be taken to heart, really because some can really weigh one down. I am glad you had a great team to help you out when things got crazy.

Sometimes, we do forget to ask for help and let the whole burden stay on us when we could have easily done that and save us and the people around us some time.

Great post, this definitely will go a long way in helping people here deal with such things. What's this book that you are planning on publishing or have you published it already?

She submitted a story to a publication but hasn't heard back yet on if they will accept it or not. If not, there are many more places to send it.

This post is part one of three and the other pieces continue with more concrete advice for working through it.

Yeah, backup! But I do hope they accept it...

Oh, that's awesome. I will check back later for it. When will you be posting it?

Yeah, there are lots of potential markets for this story. It will find a home eventually.

I can imagine it might be been a writer and dealing with feedback, so many people and personalities so many thoughts and ideas. Actually we are all different and even some of the people who giving you feedback may find one of other things needs to be improve but the ordinary reader may not think so. I just recalled one documentary about famous german Violinist David Garrett, in the program they were talking about the exams and selection of musician to higher levels and how the examiner assess them. David is young talented artists and already was giving big concerts and he just a test came to that exam, has play his music and got a lot of comment to his technical skills that he needs to change this and that and still is even not good enough. But at the end he unveil the truth and the examiners felt a bit embarrassed. I believe feedbacks in general very relative and probably personal. You can’t make everyone happy :)

When your goal is to send something for mainstream publication, you don't just need to please readers. You need to be able to get your work past the gatekeepers also who decide what goes into their publications. But when it comes down to it, all good editing is based on what impact things will have or could have on the reader.
It is never possible to please everyone and always up to the author in a peer review workshop to choose what feedback they use and what they don't, but it is useful to be sure your are having the impact you intend on the reader and to be sure that if you break "rules" the effect is worth the risk.

But just because someone has had something published or, as in your example, is a musician performing professionally, it doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement and to do better. As writers our goals should be to continue to improve, not just to reach milestones like professional publication.

Additionally once you have a name and professional credit, people become more forgiving of things that are less than ideal in your work. You can "get away" with more things that in a newcomer is perceived as sloppiness or haphazard rule breaking because your name compensates for a lot.

I think it is important that writers talk about the difficult side of things and the emotional aspects so people who are struggling with it don't feel lost and alone.

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