You got feedback on your writing. Now what?
Good writing creates a complete little world on the page. Whether it’s a story, a poem, or an essay, you want your readers to be engaged throughout and leave satisfied. The best way to get your writing to that point is to give it to others to read. But what do you do with comments that you get from teachers or other students?
Good writing creates a complete little world on the page.
Distinguishing editing from revising
It’s important to understand that none of the information below relates to when your work has been edited for punctuation, grammar, spelling, clarity, or structure. I am going to refer to that sort of editing as copy editing, which is simply technical. Occasionally the correct grammar or punctuation can be ambiguous, but if your teacher tells you to fix something, just do it.
The comments we’ll discuss from here on out are what I call “revision” comments. Remember that “re-vise” means “to see again.” A good comment helps you see your work again from a new direction.
Remember that “re-vise” means “to see again.”
Two ways NOT to respond to reader comments:
1. Good comments are not a value judgment
First, try to stop yourself from feeling like you’re being “criticized” when people take the time to read and respond to your work. The only type of comments that you should ignore are mean ones that don’t help you. If you ever get hurtful value judgment comments like, “This is a stupid story,” that reader is telling you that they don’t know how to give good feedback, not that your story is bad. Any comment made by a reader to help you improve your work is not a value judgment. It shows that they care enough to try to help.
Try to stop yourself from feeling like you’re being “criticized” when people take the time to read and respond to your work
2. Don’t respond by answering questions
It’s really tempting to answer the questions your reader has by explaining what you meant. For example, when your reader asks, “Why did Jonas not tell his mom what was going on?” that means that for that reader, Jonas’s motivations were not clear. Explaining to your reader won’t solve the problem.
Your job as a writer is to take what’s in your head and make that little world that will satisfy your readers. You won’t always be there to explain what you wrote. So when you get comments that tell you that the reader didn’t understand or felt something was missing, your job is to go back to your work and see what you can do to improve it.
Your job as a writer is to take what’s in your head and make that little world that will satisfy your readers.
The two main ways to respond to comments
Good revision comments will generally fall into one of two categories:
- Your reader “got” what you are doing and is trying to help you improve what’s on the page
- Your reader seems to have misunderstood your intent and wants you to write something completely different
1. Your reader gets your work
Yay! You’re halfway there. Your reader understands the point of your writing but had some suggestions about what you could do to make it better. What do you do with those suggestions?
Your writing needs to “do the work,” because you can’t expect that your readers will… they usually don’t.
First of all, reread your work—reading out loud is best. In many cases, you’ll immediately see the problem. One time I told a student that I didn’t understand why one of her characters was angry and she realized that she’d deleted the scene that explained why her character was angry! Oops. ‘Oops’ problems are pretty easy to fix.
But what if it seems like the answer is right there on the page? Let’s take an example where your story clearly says that the forest was scary, but your reader says, “I don’t know why Jill was scared in this scene.” Well, there are two possibilities:
Possibility #1: Maybe your reader wasn’t reading closely. That happens. Make sure to ask more than one reader to see if that was the problem.
Possibility #2: More likely, the fact is that your writing just didn’t create the emotion clearly enough for your readers. Have you heard the old saying, “Show, don’t tell”? People hardly ever remember something that they are told, but they do remember things that they’re shown. So yes, you did tell the reader that the forest was “scary,” but did you make it scary? Where there strange sounds as Jill walked into the twilight? Did the trees’ shadows appear to move?
Another thing writing teachers like to say is that your writing has to “do the work.” What’s “the work”? You can’t expect your readers to see a scary forest if you haven’t described it. Your writing needs to do the work, because you can’t expect that your readers will… they usually don’t.
2. When a reader reads something different than you intended
Sometimes a reader totally misunderstands your work. Maybe you thought your essay was funny and your reader took it seriously. Maybe your reader thinks that a minor character was more interesting than the protagonist and you should switch them around. Occasionally you might actually like their suggestion and go with it. But often, it just feels so annoying that they didn’t get what you wrote!
If their comments seem completely wrong to you, it’s important to remember that your work is yours, and that you should honor your own intent and not go and change your work just because someone misunderstood it.
But the best thing to do is both honor your intent while also taking your reader’s comments seriously. How can you do that?
Well, think of it this way: If you meant an essay to be funny and a reader thought you were serious, couldn’t that be a problem? Now, the problem might be that the reader forgot to have a sense of humor. But it’s more likely that you didn’t make the humor clear enough. So your job is not to make the essay serious as the reader expected, but to heighten the humor so they (or at least readers with a sense of humor) get it and laugh.
Let’s go back to the reader who wanted a minor character to be the protagonist. That seems like the sort of suggestion you should feel free to dismiss. That wasn’t your intent, after all. But on the other hand, you should also ask yourself why your reader wasn’t so interested in the protagonist. Doesn’t that seem like a problem you might want to consider?
The best thing to do is both honor your intent while also taking your reader’s comments seriously.
Often when readers don’t “get” your work, it’s because your words haven’t “done the work” yet and you need to dig in and improve it.
Recap: Revision = Seeing again
Let’s sum up the main points here:
- Copy editing is a skill that you need to develop. Always take those comments seriously and don’t worry—not everyone is naturally great at spelling and grammar. You’ll improve if you keep working on it.
- Good comments are not value judgments. Take every reader’s comments as a challenge to improve, not as an insult.
- Don’t explain your work—fix it!
- Always take thoughtful comments seriously and try to use them to improve your writing in any way you can.
I hope this was helpful and that you enjoy your re-vision time!
Related: Break the Block! What to do when you have writer’s block