Lets have a discussion about feedback

well, telling someone to grow up IS MEAN, since a beginner is TRYING to grow up. being "right" is not the be-all end-all of criticism. a great deal of it is strictly about taste. someone new to the whole thing might not get that and quit trying, when the fact of the matter is that it's not necessarily bad, but the few people who feel like they're right all the time argue so vehemently for it being crap. once someone gets used to it, once they've actually gotten a few successes under their belt, they'll start moving away from "coddle me" and towards "okay, sock it to me!"

 

Negative feedbacks to writing attempts should be allowed, but be tactful. Don't tell the writer he's a sack of shit, or that his work sucks. Tell him that he lacks a story line, or the title is misleading (see feedback to "Naked Lunch Revisited", where I got trashed by several people), or he isn't developing characters enough, or his grammar deserves an 'F'. Try to mix in some positive feedback if you have negatives in your post.

There is a difference between negative feedback to a writing attempt, and personal attack. Personal attacks are not allowed in site guidelines as I understand them. Also, the writer who has been attacked tends to retaliate, and a negative round of insults gets started. I am not entirely innocent here.

There is a saying that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it. A corollary is, if a written piece is not worth reviewing, don't review it.

 

Dirtydog I have transfered this to this thread, as I think its more pertaining to it, if you or anyone else has concerns about feedback in this forum, do PM me and outline any complaints and i'll look at the thread for you
S

 

I am not always the best judge of my work, so I can't know how a piece is going to 'come out'. I reserve the right to post work here, say by opening a new thread and posting something, receiving criticism, then performing an 'update in place'. As long as I mention somewhere that I've done an update in place, this is not dishonest, like a Stalinist historian removing all references to Trotsky.

This course of action allows me to improve (if that is the word) my work after receiving criticism, not before.

I found a misspelling in the above post. As soon as I knew about it, I corrected it. That's pretty basic, isn't it? As I said elsewhere, unless you're deliberately writing in a dialect, you will not be taken seriously if you have spelling or grammar errors.

 

Say Samhain, how is it that I can post a skull but not a woman's ass?

 

you could post a womans ass providing its not porn, porn is unsuitable for children who can assess this site, I don't see a skull being offensive and I don't really understand your comparison
S

 

in this case it would probably be good to say in the opening post that its a work in progress
S

 

In fact I usually put two lines as follows:

****************​

(To Be Continued)​

This tells the reader to expect an update in place, before or after the continuation message.​

Also I've decided more than once to put a disclaimer in, usually at the start of the post. This tells readers that I didn't mean to insult Florida State Department of Corrections, or actress Deborah Unger (whose photos I've used without permission), or whoever else might be involved. I don't have a lot of money set aside for hiring lawyers to defend me against people who might think they've been libelled. This is something that other writers here might keep in mind.​

 

This is something that I have thought about on my own and have asked as well with one of my poems that I posted on here. I'm still not going to cry if I don't receive feedback, but sometimes I believe it is necessary. Absolutely necessary to help someone continue to write and write. Of course we don't always want to hear the bad stuff but I think we come back to think about it later on. It happened to me...but lol...that person wound up upsetting someone else by their comments as well. I'm personally at that point now in my writing where I could use some feedback whatever it may be. I need something to light a spark again. As far as giving feedback to others, I try. I'm not always good at it, but I do try. Give feedback in the most polite way as possible without offending someone but being stern like redyelruc does. I've see some of his responses and he goes all out.

 

I write the kinds of stories that I would enjoy reading if someone else wrote them. Obviously I want my stories to be praised. Nevertheless, I would rather someone take the time to explain what he or she did not like about the story than decide that the story is not worth commenting on.

 

I agree to a point. However, if someone presents a positive portrayal of a rapist, or of a man who takes the virginity of an underage relative I will do more than criticize his spelling. I will not yell cuss words at him, but I will express my disapproval.