Some Guidelines for Giving Feedback
Giving feedback isn't the same thing as giving advice.
One of the writers in The Habit Membership was recently talking about her in-person writers’ group in her hometown. They were pretty tough customers, she said—all business. Their feedback was on-target, but it was harsh and often discouraging. “Sometimes after critique group I just come home and cry,” she said. “It takes me a little while to get back up and decide to push ahead with my book.” This writer is also in a critique group that formed within The Habit Membership. “They often give me the exact same critique as my in-person group,” she said, “but they give it in a way that gives me hope and the desire to sit down and fix what need fixing.”
As the proprietor of The Habit Membership, I found that pretty gratifying. We try to build and maintain a culture of collegiality, generosity, and hospitality. As I often say, The Habit is a place where writers give each other a little more courage. Over the years, we have developed a set of guidelines for giving feedback.. I ask writers to read and abide by them every time we start a new workshop, cohort, or class (such as Short Story Summer Camp, which starts this afternoon, and which you can still join).
These guidelines help safeguard the remarkable hospitality and generosity of The Habit Membership. I thought they might do you some good as well, especially if you’re in a critique group.
Guidelines for Critique/Discussion
It’s not your job as a critique partner to offer expertise…or, rather, you shouldn’t think of that as your primary job, even if you are a better writer than your critique partner.
Your primary job is to describe your experience of the other person’s writing…largely by telling them where their vision is coming through and where it isn’t coming through. Your job is to help your critique partner communicate their vision, NOT TO CHANGE THEIR VISION. When you think in those terms, it might help you decide which criticism to offer and which to withhold.
You might have ideas re: how that person might better convey their vision. It’s fine for you to communicate those ideas. But that’s not your main job.
Here are some questions that will help you get started providing feedback to a colleague:
What works about this piece?
How does the writer make you believe this world?
Where are you confused?
Where do you not believe?
Where does the dialogue sound written rather than sounding like something people would say in the real world?
Where do you have to work too hard to make sense of a sentence?
(In a fictional story) where do you understand the writer’s motives better than you understand the characters’ motives? (This is one of the most important things I pay attention to when critiquing a piece of fiction.)
When you approach a piece of writing from a critique partner, forget about whatever rules you have learned about writing (even if you learned them from me!). The only question you really care about is this: DOES THIS PIECE OF WRITING WORK?
Where it doesn’t work, all those rules you’ve learned can be helpful in diagnosing WHY it doesn’t work and HOW it could work better. But it is a mistake to go into the critique with your checklist of rules and categories and compare your partner’s writing against that checklist.
I am forever telling students to use less passive voice. But I don’t go looking for passive voice when I sit down with a story. If a story or essay works, I don’t care whether it has passive voice or not. But if I hit a sentence that isn’t working, THEN I run down my checklist to see what the problem might be. Passive voice? Faulty pronoun-antecedent relationship? Too many words between the subject and the verb?
As I said, I TRY to approach things that way, but we all have our hobby-horses and sometimes I catch myself noticing grammatical issues whether or not they’re actually causing problems.
And, again, your first job isn’t even to say “You’ve got Grammar Problem X here,” but rather, “This sentence isn’t working for me. I had to work a little too hard to get what you were saying.”
Your favorite writers break most of the rules that are taught by writing instructors like me. The question is never, “Is this person following the rules?” but “Is this working?”
Remember what Flannery O’Connor said about breaking rules in your writing: “Do whatever you can get away with…but nobody ever got away with much.”
Finally, too many critics criticize because it makes them feel good and superior to criticize. Don’t be that kind of critic. BE AN ALLY TO YOUR CRITIQUE PARTNERS.
Starting TODAY. This year’s Short Story Summer Camp will run from June 24 through July 29. Together we’ll read and discuss short stories and write short stories of our own.
Each Tuesday I'll host a 90-minute Zoom lecture-discussion in which we'll examine the principles and techniques of the writers we've read for that week. Then, through weekly writing exercises and mutual feedback and discussion with your colleagues, you will apply those principles and methods to your own writing.
As usual, we’ll be running two simultaneous cohorts of Short Story Summer Camp: one for adults (age 19 and up), and one for students (age14-18).
You won't need to buy a textbook; I’ll provide online links to all the stories. Here are the readings:
ADULT COHORT:
“The Moron Factory” by George Saunders
“A Temporary Matter” by Jhumpa Lahiri
“The Faery Handbag” by Kelly Link
“Liars Don’t Qualify” by Junius Edwards
STUDENT COHORT:
“To Build a Fire” by Jack London
“The Third Wish” by Joan Aiken
“Jeeves and the Unbidden Guest” by P.G. Wodehouse
“Liars Don’t Qualify” by Junius Edwards
Dates and Times:
Tuesdays, June 24 - July 29
Adult Cohort: 1:00-2:30pm Central
Student Cohort: 3:00-4:30pm Central
(Lecture recordings will be available should you be unable to attend live.)
Cost: $119
This course is included in The Habit Membership. If you are already a member, you don't need to register. Members can find Short Story Summer Camp in the Habit forums. (Please note that The Habit Membership is limited to adults, age 19 and up.)
Virtual Writing Rooms on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday
Today: The first meeting of Short Story Summer Camp
Wednesday Evening: The Habit Frontiers Speculative Fiction Group—Brainstorming session
This week in The Habit Portfolio: “We Are All Mary,” a poem by Lindsey Gallant
There's a place for you in this vibrant community of writers. Find out more about The Habit Membership here.
Meredith Davis Is a Friend to Other Writers.
Besides being a stalwart of The Habit Membership for Writers, Meredith Davis is the founder of the Austin Texas chapter of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. And she’s the author of the middle-grade novel series, The Amazing Adventures of Noah Minor. The Minor Miracle was published in 2024; The Minor Rescue was published earlier this year. In this episode, Meredith speaks with me about her long road to publication, as well as her longstanding practice of hospitality to other writers.
This couldn't have come at a better time. My husband's uncle is writing his "autobiography" and just asked me if he could send me six of the stories contained within for feedback. These guidelines are just the approach I need!
In the Young Writer’s Workshop our critique groups are talking about giving good critique right now! This was excellent timing JR! Thank you for your thoughts, I am going to use this in my own CG in the future!!