Creating Constructive Feedback

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How to help improve the stories you read.
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Zanzibar
Zanzibar
3 Followers

Authors, how many times have you wondered why people thought the way they did about your story? How many times have you looked at the information about your story and wonder why it got voted a 1 or a 5? How many times have you gotten feedback that provided no real information about why they thought your story was good, bad or indifferent?

Readers, how many of you that feel that telling someone their story is great, or that it reeks, is providing feedback that is useful to the author? How many of you feel great because you took the time to click on that form and add a few words? And you know something? It IS a great thing, and as an author I know I appreciate it. But there is a way to make those few moments even more effective, and become someone who authors will love to see comments from. Learn how to provide 'constructive' feedback instead of just positive or negative feedback.

Many times, I've gotten feedback such as:

"I love it, it was great."

"Good stuff!"

"That sucked, why do you write such crap?"

All of the above are forms of feedback. The first two positive, and the latter negative... but none of them were constructive feedback. Why did they love it? Why was it good? Why did it suck? From what those readers wrote, I really got no idea of what moved them, good or bad.

'Constructive' feedback consists of identifying those items that stood out from the story, good or bad, and relating them to the author in a way that they know why it made you feel the way it did. Why did it move you? Why did it make you excited, angry, happy, upset, delighted, disgusted or horny?

'Constructive' feedback also provides the author with your comments in a manner designed to identify strengths or shortcomings in such a way that not offensive or emotional. It sticks to the facts of the story without attacking the author. This is especially important when identifying things you consider to be shortcomings in a story.

When I read something like - "Your story sucked, asswipe! Why do you write such crap?" I personally tend to just toss it in the trash with the remainder unread. That's the common response most people have when they feel attacked by someone – an immediate defensive reaction is to stop paying attention to what the writer is saying and fight back, or defend yourself.

When I read something like - "The main characters in your story lacked any depth and I couldn't really relate to them. That kept me from getting into your story." - or - "The way you kept switching between past and present tense in your story really made it hard to follow." I get a much clearer picture of what a reader didn't like in a story and it's presented in a manner that doesn't immediately make me react defensively. It makes me go back and look at my story and see where I made those mistakes, or think of ways to strength my writing style to make my stories more enjoyable to the readers. Those are examples of negative reactions presented in a constructive manner, to help an author become a better writer.

Positive feedback with specific instances of what moved you help reinforce good things in an author's style. Examples of some positive constructive feedback are: "I liked the way you build up the suspense." "I knew exactly how the woman in your story felt because of your vivid imagery in describing her thoughts." "I liked the way you used rich descriptive phrases in your story to show me what was going on." All three examples pointed out specific things that the reader enjoyed and made the story a better experience for them. That tells me what I am doing right! It's important for me as an author to know what my readers enjoy most as well, so I can continue to include that in my stories, or work to make that even richer for my readers.

So in summary – the best forms of constructive feedback will provide an author with the following:

1) The name of the work in question.

2) What you enjoyed, or didn't enjoy about the work.

3) Why you did, or didn't enjoy it.

4) If possible, a specific example of what you identified in 2 or 3.

As an author myself, I have found constructive feedback has been a great help to me – when I have been able to get it. It's incredibly valuable in helping me identify strong aspects of my writings that hook the reader and have them wanting more, as well as point out areas where I need more work.

I feel that's an important aspect for any author - Knowing what they are doing well, as well as knowing flaws in their writings that need work. After all, that's why I write... to paint a picture in a reader's mind that they can follow and see in a clear, imaginative manner. Everything that helps me do that in a more effective manner makes me a better author, and hopefully provides better stories for the readers to enjoy. And that's why we're all here, isn't it?

Zanzibar
Zanzibar
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Alice18bbbAlice18bbbabout 1 month ago

Thank you for your advise regarding feedback on the stories I read. I don't often comment, and when I do, I like to either be constructive, or sometimes just to let the author know I enjoyed their work. Telling a writer that they need to work on sentence structure, grammar, or spelling can be dicey, especially if they have already received 50 such comments. Because of your article, when I comment in the future, I will try to be more specific.

DarkAurther6969DarkAurther6969about 2 years ago

I think another way of doing this........ Up Until Last Year I myself was Guilty of Doing this is that although still Acceptable, is Not Just List Out What You Liked and What You didn't Liked about the Story or The Movie or whatever the case may be Preferably in Separate Paragraphs. But what I Realized Last Year is that it is Better to Not List Off what You Liked and what You didn't Liked again In Separate Paragraphs but to also Explain Why You Liked This Certain Point of it or Why You Didn't Like This Certain Point of the Story Movie or whatever. And that Brings me to my Second Point with the Only Story that was Actually Successfully Posted on to this Site of Mines by some kind of Godzilla Size Mistake. Every Comment on it is the same "Boring" just Plain "Boring" With Out Explaining Why. It's Even Got to the Point where I Felt like I was Forced to Disabled the Comment Section to that Story.

AnonymousAnonymousabout 3 years ago
Making meaningful comments

can really help turn a good writer into an excellent one, and an average writer into a better one. This was a good story on doing just that, because it went into some specific examples of ways to make your comments worthwhile. Sure we like the "Great Story" comments because who doesn't like positive feedback, but finding out why a reader felt that way can make a huge difference to a writer. (Same for negative feedback... we can't fix anything or grow as a writer if we don't know there's a problem.

AnonymousAnonymousover 7 years ago
Total agreement

I think it should be required that commenters read this before commenting on a story. I have seen some really ignorant attacks on the author of a story, that had absolutely nothing to do with constructive criticism. I'm sure that kind of vile crap has convinced people to decide not to post something they've written.

TheOriginalAnonymousTheOriginalAnonymousalmost 11 years ago
Thanks

I've always tried to leave positive feedback, and not comment on the actual sexual content in a story (it seemed obvious that it is not my place to tell an author what kink should be in their story).

I didn't give as specific and descriptive feedback as I should've until I read this, however. (Preparing to write erotica for the first time, I tried to devour any "How To" that might be remotely helpful, or simply looked interesting).

I used to be supportive, I think I can be now be helpful as well. Thanks.

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