In Defense of Feedback
Someone commented yesterday that a verbose explanation for writing that doesn’t work seems unnecessary.
I admit that my one criticism of the MFA classes I took was that there were professors who pored over and discussed stories to death. Stories that were pretty much unsalvagable. I don’t think that it does a writer any good to hash over work that was probably what I like to call an apprentice-piece. Sometimes you need to leave that behind you and work on new stories.
However, feedback is always important. It’s good to hear what someone thinks about your writing. This someone should not be your spouse or close friend (unless that person is searingly honest, in which case, you may not want to be that close).
There’s a large part of the writing process that includes sharing, which includes constructive feedback. So if people ask to read your work, take them up on it. And then take notes.
Magazines can’t be completely honest and tell terrible writers not to send any more stories because they run a business that is built on those same people who are subscribers. So my inside scoop to you is just to keep reading the magazines you would love to see your story in, because you’ll learn what those editors like.
A few months ago I watched an interview with Steve Martin and he talked about learning how to play the banjo. At first, he was terrible, but then he figured that if he kept playing the banjo every day, one day, he will have played the banjo for twenty years. And in twenty years, he was bound to get better.
So when I see that someone has sent her twentieth story to us, I do give it a fresh look, because she might have learned a lot writing those other nineteen stories.
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