Q: Wanna give a writer feedback?
A: Don’t!
We writers are like delicate flowers or fragile snowflakes. We don’t take criticism well. Or at least, personally speaking, I don’t. Even if it’s given kindly, it feels like a knife to the heart. Especially if the person starts with something like, “I really loved your story but …”
But. That but is the twist of the knife.
And this is how it feels (for me anyway). And that is with feedback that I’ve asked for or that I’m expecting from friends and beta readers. So if it’s unsolicited feedback? Or as I like to think of it as: “feedback”? Then the knife becomes an arrow being shot at me, over and over and over until I’m skewered with a bunch of arrows like…well, something that you skewer.
There are a few unspoken rules in the writing world, and one of them is about feedback. And the main thing you need to keep in mind with this rule is that it is really very simple and it boils down to this, effectively:
Do you want to give a writer feedback? Yes.
And what should the little angel on your shoulder say to you before you do? Most of the time you should listen to the good angel and not the little devil, so it will be a variation on don’t. Or No. Or no way Jose.
