How to Spot Toxic Feedback: 7 Signs That the Writing Advice You’re Getting May Do More Harm Than Good

[Quantum]

A few on-the-spot quotes:

The bestselling fantasy author Neil Gaiman once said, “Remember: when people tell you something’s wrong or doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.”
...
A literary writer unfamiliar with the conventions of genre will advocate for geeky details to be cut. A reader who enjoys thrillers will encourage the author to play up a cloak-and-dagger angle, when what that author intended was something more along the lines of existential dread.

This is not to say you should only share your work with people who share your tastes—only that you should not share your work with people who are unaware of their own biases.

https://janefriedman.com/how-to-spot-...

Thoughts?

[Garfield]

If an author is confident about their writing, they should still listen to the view/advice of others and then determine what if any of that advice applies to them.

[Keith]

I think, as long as the author is clear on their original intent, they can easily ignore the bad/useless advice and focus on the elements that help achieve their goal. I wound up getting lots of beta readers (over 30) in large part because of the wildly different feedback. The readers that 'got it' (maybe 20-25%) seemed to really like the story, most of the rest hated it. Part of my problem was I was inadvertently targeting the wrong market, which set up expectations I failed to meet, so I don't consider the negative feedback entirely useless (I wound up completely rewriting my blurb because of the feedback as well as dramatically shifting my targeted genre), but I did get some incredibly detailed, but entirely useless, feedback from people who were trying to help me write a completely different novel.

However, if you aren't clear on your intent as the author of your story, then I can see how the contradictory input will lead to watering down your story. I embrace the mantra that you can't please all the people all the time, so would rather have a handful of enthusiastic readers eager to read my subsequent work than a much larger group of 'meh' readers that couldn't care less if I ever wrote again.

[Kat]

After five months in the beta/editing stage, I'm getting ready to move on to querying. Some of my takeaways on how to deal with feedback:

1. Consensus. If more than 2 people have a problem with something, I'll change it. The severity of the revision will be in direct proportion to the number of people who pointed out the issue.

2. If some element of the story draws a strong negative reaction, even from one person, I will look carefully at the element and seriously consider changing it.

3. If the comment is obviously coming from a place of personal taste/preference, I'll consider tinkering with it if the reader represents my target (or desired) audience.

4. I don't mind negative feedback as long as it's given in good faith, with the goal of advising me on how to revise. I've only had one experience with beta reading/feedback that I felt came from a place of bad faith. My sense was that she didn't want to commit to reading (even though I read/critiqued for her), so she invented a problem that wasn't actually there to justify her decision. Still, I examined the mss to see if there were any places where I could make 1000% sure that nobody else could "see" this alleged problem. So, even the most useless feedback can be put to work for you, I think.

5. I've learned, via craft books, how to read into vague comments that I previously would have dismissed as unhelpful or useless. For example, I learned that comments in the vein of "I just couldn't connect with the character(s)" is indicative of lack of depth in the point of view area. What an eye opener!

[Martha]

Which craft books were most helpful for learning to interpret vague feedback?

[Kat]

James Scott Bell's entire series is terrific. The one on point of view was the one that unpacked the "couldn't connect" comment.

[Quantum]

Kat wrote: "1. Consensus. If more than 2 people have a problem with something, I'll change it. The severity of the revision will be in direct proportion to the number of people who pointed out the issue.
...
5. I've learned, via craft books, how to read into vague comments that I previously would have dismissed as unhelpful or useless. For example, I learned that comments in the vein of "I just couldn't connect with the character(s)" is indicative of lack of depth in the point of view area. What an eye opener! "

excellent points.

although #5 could, in addition, be a number of things working together, one other common offender is lack of quality interior monologue. my go-to book for editing is Self-Editing for Fiction Writers: How to Edit Yourself Into Print and it ha chapters on both POV and internal monologue.