Feedback: The Secret to Making your Writing Great

Getting feedback on your writing is the (sometimes scary) process of sharing your writing and asking others for help. You might be asking why this is important? You’re already a pretty great writer, or you wouldn’t be here, so why do you need others to read your writing? Let me share a few reasons:

 1. Readers will push you to change and improve as a writer. That’s a good thing and the most important reason. Good writers don’t do it alone; they rely on others for help.

2. Quality constructive feedback makes your story better. That’s it. It’s that simple.

3. We know our weaknesses and tend to focus on those. Readers might not even pick up on what we think are weak areas, instead, they will point out other weak areas that we never even knew existed (hold your head up), BUT they’ll also point out parts that work really well. It’s a balance.

4. Often, we are too close to our own story. We know the back story, the character’s motivations, all the fine details that may or may not have found their way into the final draft. Sometimes, we know those in our head, but forget to include them in the text which can be confusing, or we add too much information to the text. We need an objective reader to point those areas out.

Every writer needs quality constructive feedback to improve, but to get the most out of it, check out the following guidelines to prep your piece for feedback.

 1. Finish your entire story before submitting it into the story section and asking for feedback. Get it done and trust your own writer’s instincts.

2. If you need help at some point in the drafting process, post that section or your question in the forums. Other writers will help you out there.

3. When you are all done with it, set your story aside for a week or two. Leave it alone! After some time, go back to it and read the entire piece. You can even read it out loud. You will be surprised at what you catch. Take notes and make your own revisions.

Are you ready to get some feedback? Good. Take one of the following steps to improve your writing:

1. Take a portion of one of your stories that you might be stuck on and share it in the comments below with a specific question on what you need help with.

2. Take a completed story that you feel like is the best that you can make it. Share it with a friend and get ready for some feedback.

3. Finally, if you’ve got any other great reasons to get feedback, share them in the comments below.