On Feedback

Feedback. It's what all authors seek, whether they admit it or not. It's a completely natural urge. Nothing feels worse than being ignored. Our fair site here is hardly an exception to that rule, and we unfortunately see too many would-be artists sacrificing vision for good reviews and popularity. Still, that's not what I'm here to talk about. I feel that, as an author, one should take the time to at least look at any feedback that one receives. Not all feedback is useful to the artist, however. To aid me in filtering the feedback worth considering from things that can be safely ignored, I've created four categories for feedback received: Negative Unhelpful, Positive Unhelpful, Negative Helpful, and Positive Helpful.

Negative Unhelpful is the easiest to identify, consisting as it does of (often misspelled) insults and general bile. Comments consisting entirely of "this suckz!!!" do neither the author nor the reviewer any favors. No reason is given for the alleged suckage, and little is to be gained from paying such comments any attention.

Positive Unhelpful is far more flattering, but just as useless to any artist hoping to improve their work. It is nice to be told that "this is one of the greatest fics I've ever read", without a doubt, but stroking one's ego isn't the point of writing stories. Or, at least, good stories. Which is no doubt why the many assorted self inserts and Mary Sue fics running around are often so poorly written in other aspects. So, while this feedback may evoke pleasant feelings in the author, it too should be generally dismissed from one's head fairly quickly. Nothing good comes of an over-inflated ego.

Negative Helpful is far less enjoyable, but much more worth paying attention to. Any writer worth talking about must remember that it is perfectly possible that someone will dislike your story for reasons that are entirely legitimate. The thing that differentiates this from Negative Unhelpful is that this type of feedback goes into some detail as to why the reviewer dislikes your story. Perhaps they feel that your OC is a blatantly overpowered Mary Sue, or that your protagonist's morality shows signs of hypocrisy. Maybe your plot has holes big enough to drive an eighteen-wheeler through, or else it's just slow, meandering, and pointless. Regardless, when someone identifies reasons for disliking your fic, you as an author should at least give their words some consideration. We're all human, and we all make mistakes. The important thing is to learn from them, which is why it's worth at least giving an ear to those that don't like your work.

Positive Helpful is undoubtly my favorite kind of feedback. As distinguished from unqualified praise, Positive Helpful feedback tells you what you are doing right in your work. Maybe your atmosphere is just the right tone to evoke the desired emotions in your reader, or perhaps your world building is not only realistic for the circumstances but rich and interesting. It is undoubtedly nice to be told what one is doing right, but the real importance of feedback is for your future work. This type of feedback can help you to make better stories in the future by letting you know what you need to keep doing, while Negative Helpful lets you know what to change. That's why both those two types are worth considering whenever you receive them.