Lessons from Feedback

Like other authors who are relatively new to this game, I've spent a lot of time trying to get feedback on my manuscript. In addition to passing my manuscript to my oh-so-diligent beta readers (who I'm very grateful for!), I've entered Twitter contests and blog critique workshops to get a feel for how others react to my work. As expected, I've had mixed reviews. Some people love it, some people hate it, and some people have been in that middle ground of "it's okay I guess."

I've learned some very important lessons from the feedback I've received. Here's a breakdown of those lessons. Note that anything in quotation marks is not actually a direct quote.


Your manuscript needs to fall on fresh eyes.

As the writer, you're too deeply involved in your manuscript. You need someone to step back and see the big picture for you. Find out how other people react to your story to learn whether your intentions come out in your writing. What works in your head will not necessarily work for other people.

Along the same lines, other people can point out when certain parts of the text jump out at them negatively. There's a spot in the beginning of my manuscript that I added recently but didn't feel quite right about. I couldn't figure out WHY it didn't feel right, so I let it stay. When a stranger read that passage on a blog, he or she picked out one sentence and said "This doesn't fit your character's voice. It's the most mature sentence Morgan has said so far." Ah-ha! That was the simple solution to the unrefined question that had been bothering me. When something doesn't feel right but you're not sure why, you might need someone's fresh eyes to give you gut reactions.

Sometimes you have to read between the lines.

I occasionally receive suggestions that make absolutely no sense at first. For instance, I was really excited to hear one of my beta readers' reactions about how the "hero" of my story swoops in to save the main character when it's least expected. His reaction was not what I had anticipated: "I don't understand why he's supposed to be a hero. He's actually just a d*ck that did something nice at the end."

When I asked my beta reader to be more specific, I discovered that he had accidentally mixed up two of the characters in his head! One character was a true d*ck with no redeemable qualities; the other was a confused, pained man in search of love who made mistakes but had the best intentions.

My gut reaction was to say, "You should have read the story more closely! It's not my fault you can't keep names straight!"

But here's the awful truth that I needed to recognize (and here's where the "reading between the lines" part comes in): There's a REASON the reader mixed up those characters. I didn't need to fix my reader's intelligence--I needed to fix my characters. I needed to make the characters more distinguishable not just in actions (which the already were) but in personalities. Though the readers were very different in my head, they did not come across that way on paper (or, er, type).

Sometimes the feedback you receive isn't straightforward; you might need to take feedback not at face value but as a start for figuring out deeper problems.

No one knows your manuscript like you do.

Someone who read my first 250 words said something like this: "You should remove this self-deprecating sentence because you don't want agents thinking your book is self-deprecating."

Well no. That line is about Morgan's lack of self-confidence. It's NOT a line that justifies weaknesses in the manuscript. But the person who read the excerpt didn't know the manuscript well enough to understand the full scope of the main character's personality.

When people critique your work, you must always remember that they don't know your story as well as you do. You've engineered this story and you understand it; as such, there are certain forms of feedback that you need to take with a grain of salt. Don't follow everyone's suggestions just for the sake of following them--it might end up causing more harm than good.

Not everyone has to like it.

Since you'd find my book on the YA LGBTQ shelf, it's a given that not everyone is going to like it. But even people who are into this genre don't have to like it either. There is no book in existence that everyone likes. I've learned that I only need to impress SOME people. If someone out there falls in love with my work, then it's possible an agent will too. I'm not here to please everyone; I'm here to get my message across.

There comes a point when you have to be done.

There's only so much feedback you can take. Really. You cannot obsess over what everyone thinks forever. There is a stage where feedback is needed and there's a stage where you need to let go and hope it sells. That's not to say that you shouldn't give your manuscript to someone who asks to read it. But I AM saying that there are only so many times when you need to actively seek criticism. If you let the feedback go on for longer than necessary, you'll find yourself running in circles trying to please everyone. Let go when you're ready.

Here, Have a Teaser

“What are you thinking right now?” I asked.

He responded, “...What do you WANT me to say?"

I wanted Holden to say whatever was on his mind, no matter how stupid it was, but unfortunately he said exactly what I DIDN'T want him to say. Every time he speaks, all I hear is a bunch of crap. For some stupid reason, I can't trust him.

“What do you want out of this?” I asked. But he never answered the question.

“I know why guys want to get with you, because ...you know...” he said, trying to change the subject. “...but I'm not like that. No.” 

We cuddled anyway.