Feedback is a Gift

And on how it can change your life.

I had a short essay workshopped last week and much like when I’ve submitted my work to anthologies or journals, I secretly hoped the reader would fall off their chair in adoration and scream, ‘it’s perfect, it’s perfect!” and then offer me a seven book contract.

That didn’t happen.

I was the last writer to receive feedback and I was impatient as I sat through the other critiques. There were a couple poems and a few essays; the feedback was universally positive. Specific lines were called out as striking or moving. Titles were chosen. The feedback we all received was to slow it down here, or expand this part, like always.

With just a few minutes left in the call it was my turn:

Nobody fell off their chair.

Nobody screamed their adoration.

Nobody signed me to anything.

But I did get feedback: Be sure the dialogue is clear; Give us more context; The reader needs to know the timing; The reader needs to know the narrator’s space.

These are all good points, it's all good feedback. They make sense, I have some work to do. And not just in the essay I shared.

But in general.

Feedback is a gift.

I am constantly getting feedback. It’s part of being creative. Sometimes it’s nit-picky: “Are you sure that’s the correct font?” Yes, yes it is.

Or, “Why is there a typo? Did you run a spell check?” Crap, not this time.

Or, after I send a second round of creative, I’m sent a sample of a new direction the client wants to explore. These are good things to know, but from the start.

What you do with it is up to you.

Writing is hard. Design is hard. Life is hard.

Everyone has an opinion, an idea, a direction. Design and writing are subjective. Opinions are based on a person’s feelings and experiences. A client might not like orange because their cold, selfish grandmother wore orange every day. Or an editor might not like an essay because it reminds them of their own childhood trauma.

But Writing can also be beautiful, Design can also be rewarding; Life can also be exhilarating.

Providing constructive feedback can strengthen anything and everything. So I’ll get back to that essay and massage and reshape and add and subtract. And it will be better, stronger, closer to whole. As I will be.

Because what we do with that feedback is up to us.