Giving Feedback

I seem to be in a constant state of giving feedback.

•          I’m in two critique groups

•          I edit for a publisher

•          I work as a university lecturer in Creative Writing and so part of my day job is to give feed back on people’s writing.    

It’s not a bad thing to be doing with a lot of my day, actually, as it helps me to look at my own work more objectively and more critically.

I do work slightly differently with each group. I’m certainly harsher with my third year undergraduates and my MA students. I’m also reasonably sharp with the people I edit for publication – after all this is a professional action and leads to a book appearing in the public domain. It has to be right for the sake of us all. I’m a little kinder to my less experienced students and the members of my critique group.

Yet with every group there are similarities:

I start with the positive. What is good about the piece?  People need to know what works as well as what doesn’t work. I’ll often totally nitpick as I read the piece – annotating anything that I think doesn’t work. I’ll often write by hand on hard copy. More and more, though. I’m adding comments or using Track Changes in Word. The latter has two advantages: people can read my writing and if need be the work can be emailed back. The notes I make as I go along also help me to form the overall comments I want to give. I’ll try to find out what is the most significant fault – if this fault is addressed it would make a big difference to the text. I like to finish with an encouraging remark.

Of course, when editing for publication, we have to get the text as near as perfect as possible. Already in the selection process we’ve looked for what needs little editing – and generally only what I would call levels two and three edits are needed. Normally the structure will already be sound. Characters will be rounded and mainly consistent. There will be a few technical hiccups and a selection of typos and the odd grammatical, punctuation and spelling mistakes. The latter I simply correct. For the former I pose questions and occasionally suggest alternatives. Usually, though, the author can think of a better alternative; it’s their baby and they have more time.

What do I find to comment on? I work mainly on prose fiction, but also a little on other forms of prose. Here’s my list:

1. Is the overall structure sound? 
2. Is the resolution satisfying?
3. Does the time scale work?
4. Is the piece the right format and length for the target reader?
5. Are the characters consistent? Do they develop? Do you know everything about them that you should?
6. Is the plot convincing? Is there cause and effect?
7. Is there conflict and tension? Are there peaks and troughs?
8. Does the pace vary?
9. Does the dialogue work? It should not be too natural. It should only say important things. It should differentiate characters’ voices. It should convey mood, character and reaction and every speech should give information
10. Is the detail and description in balance?
11. Is the balance of showing and telling correct?
12. Are there any darlings that need killing off?
13. Are there any clichés that could be avoided?
14. Does the text flow? Overall flow
15. Are there any typos, punctuation, spelling or grammar mistakes?

In the end, it becomes hard to read any text without looking for those items. Sadly, when a text so good that you do stop looking for those sorts of items you then start asking yourself what makes this particular text so good. Yet there remains an upbeat side even then. You begin to enjoy texts in different way.