FEEDBACK #1

Comment if you're looking for it 🎯

Dear you, dear writer,

Today’s big question is:

What do writers need?

(Everything. We’ll take everything.)

Our working list:

1. Time

2. Money

3. Headspace

4. Feedback

5. Audience

(What have we missed?)

Since we can’t give you 1. Time, 2. Money or 3. Headspace (yet) let’s start with

4. Feedback

As a writer you’re bound to have a complicated relationship with feedback.

Asking, receiving, and taking on feedback requires a delicate balance. Of what?

Being open to the right person; being closed to the wrong person; listening to what others have to say whilst remaining faithful to your own voice and vision…

We’re aware that some of the things we’re saying here will strike you as, deliriously obvious but it’s for this reason that they can be so easily overlooked. Keep reading.

If you’re an aspiring author with a series of rejections under your belt get in touch with yourself: when was the last time you asked for feedback on your writing?

We highly encourage you to look for feedback before submitting to us again.

You have so many options. Just one for today:

1. Don’t simply “share”

We see lots of writers sharing their writing on Substack or elsewhere. But what we see a lot less of is writers actively asking for feedback. That’s fine. Just be aware if you’re doing one or the other. Though it may feel like by sharing your writing with the world you’re asking for feedback, you’re not. No one’s going to rush into your comments section or your private messages to start critiquing your work… unless you invite them to.

Are you ready for feedback? If you are (you might not be) ask for it in whichever way doesn’t make your skin crawl. And if you’re an aspiring author beyond feedback, may the publishing gods help you…

Having said that, we understand this is your work and it is precious.

You are not going to take just anyone’s word here. You need a reader who is good for you which means:

• finding out what genre of books they usually read

• asking for a few of their favourite authors/novels

If you’re reading the same books AND enjoying the same authors this could be a really good feedback loop for you—one which exists outside your circle of personal connections.

A lot of the feedback people get is from their extended circle of family and friends.

The primary motive of those people is to enhance and develop relations with you as a person. The focus is on you as a person, not the writing. What you need are people who are wiling to focus on the writing and not the damage they’re doing to you as a person because sometimes feedback is highly intrusive and difficult to bear.

Thanks now to the 46 people and counting who commented what genre they’re writing on last week’s post. Some of you have clearly been thinking about it for a while; others are tuning into finer details; others are seeing how it sounds for the first time… this is all good work. We see you. This week we’re going to be building on that work like a 10-week course on how to do a headstand:

🚨ACTION POINT HERE🚨

Two things we’d like from you this week:

1. comment the genre of the book you’re working on (please try to refine your genre statement to less than a sentence. The fewer words the better—supplemented by the fact you’ll also be commenting:)

2. your favourite authors or novels (1-10) which are relevant to the work (aka comps—if you don’t know what comps are read this.) This is not the time to share the books which meant the most to you as a child. These are books you respect in tone/form/execution and which you’re actively trying to emulate in your work.

Once you’ve done that we want you to channel

Janine Eaby

and

DanDrives

in our comments section from last week:

Offer to read each other. It’s as simple as that. If we spot writers who we think will be good matches for each other based on your comments from this week & last week, we’ll tag you.

If you’re not on Substack no worries. This goes beyond. When you find someone writing in your genre AND their favourites novels/authors speak to yours… that’s a good opportunity. Just remember that. Dare to get their email and send them your writing. When there’s no money involved, it usually works best as an exchange between two parties. Oh and don’t forget to explicitly ask for feedback—or, because we secretly hate the word, a fully authentic response which might be difficult to bear.

No one’s going to build these relationships for you.

Our best,

Ivan and Tilly

TWO things today: ONE we want to hear which genre you’re writing AND TWO 1-10 authors/novels you’re actively trying to emulate in your work/hold up as bastions of good form (—& the silent third to check you were really listening: are you looking for feedback or not?)