WEbook Blog: A Writer's Resource

Creative Writing Advice #11: Cut Unnecessary Description

Melissa arrived at the office five minutes late, as usual. She opened the door and walked down the hall. She put her laptop down on her desk and sat in her chair. She double-clicked on her Outlook folder, and brought up her cluttered to-do list. Stage Directions Blog was written right at the top. Great. She’d been looking forward to this for a long time. But first, she had to do something about breakfast. It was no good writing on an empty stomach. She pulled her whole wheat bagel out of her backpack and unwrapped it. She put a napkin in her lap. She tore off a chunk of bagel and put it in her mouth. She chewed. She swallowed. Soon, the bagel was gone, and it was time to write the blog entry. She opened Microsoft Word (despite the program’s nightmarish incompatibility with Typepad’s text editor), and put her hands on the keyboard. She began to type.

Cut!

You follow all that, readers? Or did you scan right down to the bottom, thinking, “All right already with the napkin in your lap! Get to the good stuff!”

If you answered the latter, I don’t blame you. That paragraph is a living, breathing specimen of a prose writer’s mortal enemy: Stage Directions.

Any time you narrate a physical action that gets a person from point A to point B, you’re using Stage Directions. Of course, sometimes it’s necessary to include some stage directions. But many writers – especially novices – use far too many stage directions in their writing.

The term Stage Directions comes from – you guessed it – playwriting, where stage directions are used to tell actors what they should do with their bodies during a play. Some plays include more stage directions than others. The most basic stage directions provide cues only for when a character enters or exits the stage. But plays never provide detailed directions for every single action a character should make during the play. Why not? Because actors and directors would revolt! “Don’t micromanage me!” they would exclaim. “I can create my own interpretation of my character’s actions! Give me some creative freedom!”

Your readers are sort of like these actors and directors. If a person you’re writing about goes from the kitchen table to the back door, you don’t need to tell your readers about how they stood up, walked around the table, walked into the hall, opened the door to the laundry room, etc. Your readers are perfectly capable of filling in the blanks with their imaginations. In fact, the process of doing this is one of the major pleasures of reading. Don’t rob your reader of that pleasure by micromanaging his or her imagination.

How do you know what stage directions to put in, and which to leave out? Practice, practice, practice. You might start by putting a lot of unnecessary directions in, and then taking them out in editing. Wise, helpful readers can help you find places in your writing where you use too many stage directions. As a general rule, you should include only those physical actions which are absolutely necessary for a reader’s comprehension of a scene; and those which reveal something interesting about your character or his/her situation. If you’re still uncertain, pretend your characters are capable of teleporting both through time and space. If you can teleport them somewhere without totally confusing your reader, or missing something crucial in the story, don’t describe the steps it would take for them to get there.

Now try this on for size:

Melissa arrived at the office five minutes late, as usual. She glanced at her cluttered to-do list: Stage Directions Blog. Great. She’d been looking forward to this for a long time. But first, she had to do something about breakfast. It was no good writing on an empty stomach. She tried to make her whole wheat bagel last, but before she knew it, it was time to write the blog entry. She opened Microsoft Word (despite the program’s nightmarish incompatibility with Typepad’s text editor), and began to type.

WEbook Writing Secrets

Got a secret I don’t know about? Share it with the world in WEbook Writing Secrets. To submit a secret, email me or visit my profile and send me a message with the subject line: Writing Secrets. The best secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will receive a byline and a bio.

Start Writing Now

Put your secrets to work – sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

 

Best of WEbook: WEbooker of the WEek

Ladies and gentlemen, raise your hands if you like things that are the best.

Allow me to present WEbooker of the WEek senoritaburrito.

I love all my WEbookers of the WEek equally, so I’m not going to claim that senoritaburrito is the best WoW ever. But she is the project leader of The Best of WEbook , a two-project series that just might be the best place to write poetry and short stories on WEbook.

In the Best of WEbook: Poetry and Short Stories, writers and readers are held to a high standard of excellence, in both their writing and their feedback. Participants are required to provide good feedback for at least eight other submissions before they submit a piece of their own. Senoritaburrito provides a definition of “high quality feedback” in the project overviews – if you want even more in-depth guidance on the art of feedback, check out this blog entry, part of the WEbook Guide to Feedback.

Senoritaburrito came up with the idea for the Best of WEbook series when she noticed a lot of people on the forums asking for feedback exchanges.  She thought it would be nice to have a project where these writers could get guaranteed feedback – as long as they were willing to work for it. So far, senoritaburrito’s experience has been “entirely positive.” She says, “Everyone has contributed willingly, some even going beyond their required reviews to help out.  We have some excellent pieces on both projects. I’m still looking for new contributors for both of them.  I hope they help out all the aspiring writers who choose to participate.”

To satisfy your burning curiosity, I asked senoritaburrito everything you’ve been dying to know, but were afraid to ask.

Q: What's the story behind your WEbook penname?

A: I called a friend Senor Taco one day.  She called me Senorita Burrito.  I don’t remember why this odd choice of names came up in the first place.  A few months later I needed a username for some site and thought of senoritaburrito, and I’ve kept it ever since. 

Q: What is the story of your life, including your history with writing, and any interesting accomplishments, experiences, and quirks you'd like your fellow WEbookers to know about?

I moved from Florida to Northern Michigan at the age of seven, and have been here ever since.  I was homeschooled until eighth grade, at which point I went to a charter school.  I now go to a community college part-time and work at a local restaurant. I’m in my second year of college, and I’m hoping to transfer next fall to the University of Chicago or Lawrence Technological University. 

I first started writing at the age of eight or nine, when I got tired of how limited the plots in most books I read seemed to be.  I came up with stories all of the time in my head.  I stuck with prose, in a kind of lackluster way, until I “discovered” poetry in high school through poets like Sylvia Plath, Dylan Thomas, and William Carlos Williams.  I started writing poetry off and on.  In college, I started to slack off on the writing front, but joining WEbook has been an amazing experience to get me re-inspired and meet other writers.  I feel like I have expanded in my writing more in the few months that I’ve been on here than in the few years that I’ve been seriously writing poetry.  It’s given me a lot of inspiration to improve myself, and I’ve made some excellent writing friends.

My dream in life is to become a wandering hobo and travel the entire world.  I’d like to experience as much of life as I can before I trip over the oft-mentioned bucket. 

Q: What is your greatest weakness?

A:  I’m a great fan of procrastination.  I’ve got it down to an art form.  It is impossible to work on anything at all unless it’s five minutes prior to the due date.  Panic is the spice of life, eh?  This has gotten me in some trouble before...but, as Douglas Adams said, “I love deadlines.  I love the whooshing sound they make as they go by.” Sometimes I really wish I were the type of person who does everything ahead of time.  But somehow, it seems like there are always so many more important things to do.  Wash dishes?  I’m on it.  Calculus is just going to have to wait.  I mean, vectors are fascinating and all, but it just can’t measure up to the joy of scrubbing crusted pots and pans.  Don’t you agree? 

Q:  What piece of WEbook writing are you most proud of?

A: I’m not sure on this one.  There are several that I like, but none that I am particularly proud of.  They could always be so much better.  Though I do like my poem “Dreaming of Zeus.” 

Q: What advice would you like to give your fellow WEbookers?

A: Always remember to take every review you receive with a grain of salt.  The reviewer is not the author of your piece, and when it comes down to it, it is your decision.  Grammar and syntax suggestions should generally be taken, unless the reviewer rites he’s revue liek this, but when it comes to opinion issues, remember that you are the one doing the writing.  And you are never going to make everybody happy all at once. Satisfy yourself first.  It’s your writing, in the end. If you don’t feel like you can stick up for it, then there are probably some flaws in the plan and it would be better to start over. 

Q:  Describe your ideal day, using exactly 5 words.

A: I have nothing to do. 

WEbooker of the WEek

Do you have a line on the wonderfullest writer on WEbook? The fantastickest feedbacker? Or anyone else who goes above and beyond to make WEbook the best writing, reading, and publishing community on the internet? Drop me an email or visit my profile and send me a message with the title “WEbooker of the WEek” to nominate your favorite WEbooker. He or she will have a shot at joining the ranks of the immortals – and getting a free WEbook T-shirt to boot.

Join WEbook Today

Ready to read, write, and get published? Sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice #10: Use Believable Language

by Julian_Finn

Never use language in your prose that's noticeably more complex than your characters.

As writers struggle to find their voices and develop definitive styles, it's tempting to use "impressive" vocabulary -- sort of a textual scream that says, "See!  See!  I English good!"

Instead of focusing on showing off your language chops, it's usually a good idea to use language that syncs with your characters.  If you're writing about gruff, gritty, morally complex characters, make your prose gruff, gritty, and sharp.  Alternatively, if you're writing about pretentious, snobbish characters, it makes more sense to be more stylish and haughty with your language.

This rule is especially true if you're writing in the first person.  It makes no sense for your rude, uneducated doormat protagonist to use five syllable words to describe a tree.

About the Author

Julian_Finn is a Canadian writer and corporate sales professional.  He is currently working on revising the first draft of his novel, There but for Luck.

Got a Secret?

Do you have a writing tip you'd like to share with the world?  Send me an email, or visit my WEbook profile and drop me a message with the subject line: WEbook Writing Secrets.  Keep it practical -- your tip should be something a writer can apply directly to his or her craft.  The best Writing Secrets will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox.  Contributors will be credited with a bio.

Put our Tips to the Test

Ready to write? Join WEbook today and see Writing Secrets in action.

-- Melissa

Dear WEbook: WEbookers Writing Letters

“Remember the good old days, before the invention of the obnoxious telegraph, the odious telephone, and the opprobrious television, when the only way to communicate with someone was either to yell, ‘What’s up, Earl?’ as you drove your horse and buggy past Earl’s house, or to write a letter? When the pen was mightier than the sword? When the written word was the way to express your thoughts? When people cared about writing? Those days are long gone. Right?”

Wrong. Writing is probably a bigger part of ordinary people’s lives now than at any other time in history – all because of the power of the internet.  According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, 73% of American adults use the internet, and of those adults, 60% say they write and read email every day. The Radicati Group estimates that 1.2 billion people sent email in 2007. A study by the same group determined that 183 billion emails were sent every day in 2006.

“Sure, sure. But kids these days just don’t write like they used to.”

Wrong again.  An April 2008 Pew Research Study showed that 93% of teens say they write for pleasure. If you broaden your definition of writing to include messages on social networking sites, IM, text messages, email, and a bunch of other stuff I’ve probably never even heard of, today’s young people are lean, mean writing machines.

WEbook is yet more proof. Hundreds of thousands of WEbookers are working on tens of thousands of writing projects as we speak.

“But…what about letters? No one writes letters anymore!”

Does it hurt to be so wrong? Never mind, I won’t rub it in. If you’re feeling nostalgic for the good old days of the epistle, check out these WEbook projects, where WEbookers are writing letters to everything from a pack of cigarettes to their own past or future selves.

Dear Joe Camel
Ex-smokers, conflicted smokers, and straight-up pack-a-dayers memorialize their love affairs with tobacco.

“Do you remember the day we met? I do. I remember it vividly. It was my 16th birthday and you were the most wonderful thing in the world to me. I'd seen you around of course – everyone had – but that day you were mine and mine alone. I was so happy that day. You made me feel so alive, so grown up, and so cool to be able to be seen with you.” – jessideath

Open Letters
Letters to someone in particular. Or no one in particular. Rant and rave, and get it all off your chest.

“I was going to write you a letter, but then I realized it was a waste of my time. So I guess you and a letter have a lot in common.” – ravenouspoe

Extraordinary Letters
Write a poem or tell a short story in the form of a letter.

"An open letter to you all.
I've been here a while
And I'm having a ball.

I don't have no rhyme,
I don't got no reason.
I'm just coming back
From from a long and dark season.” – jamesmcshane

Dear Future
Write letters or poems to your future.

dear future,
wish you were here.
love,
mitzi” – Mitzi_Hell

A Look at the Past
What would you tell the you of ten years ago if you could?  "Don't get an adjustable rate mortgage!"  Now's your chance to let yourself know all the things you'd wish you'd known.

Featured WEbook Projects

Know a really great project on WEbook? Want to spread the word? Send me an email or visit my profile and drop me a message to nominate it as a Featured WEbook Project!

Start Writing Now!

Today’s featured letter-writing projects are open to all writers! To get started, sign up for WEbook today.

-- Melissa

Happy National Punctuation Day!

According to CNN, September 24 is National Punctuation Day, described on the official website as "a celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotes, and other proper uses of periods, semi-colons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis."  The website features an exhaustive library of punctuation images, along with instructions on their proper use.  You can also get a recipe for the Official Meat Loaf of National Punctuation Day.

Wondering how to celebrate National Punctuation Day?  The holiday's founder, Jeff Rubin, has a few suggestions:

• Sleep late.
• Take a long shower or bath.
• Go out for coffee and a bagel (or two).
• Read a newspaper and circle all of the punctuation errors you find (or think you find but aren’t sure) with a red pen.
• Take a leisurely stroll, paying close attention to store signs with incorrectly punctuated words.
• Stop in those stores to correct the owners.
• If the owners are not there, leave notes.
• Visit a bookstore and purchase a copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style.
• Look up all the words you circled.
• Congratulate yourself on becoming a better written communicator.
• Go home.
• Sit down.
• Write an error-free letter to a friend.
• Take a nap. It has been a long day.

I'd like to add one more item to your National Punctuation Day to-do list:

• Head over to the WEbook forum on Grammar, Syntax, and Other Nuts and Bolts, and join raging debates on the virtues of serial commas (also known as the Oxford comma), proper punctuation for quotations, the colon vs. the semi-colon, and more.

Join WEbook Today!

Can't wait to start chatting about punctuation?  Sign up for WEbook right this second!

-- Melissa

Creative Writing Advice #9: Story Writing by the Letters

So you want to write a short story, but you don’t know where to start? No worries – today’s WEbook Writing Secret is here to help.

The key to overcoming writer’s block is structure. Counter-intuitive as it may seem, giving yourself less freedom rather than more can help jump start the creative process. Blame it on humankind’s will to overcome obstacles. If you see a mountain, you’ll climb it. No mountain? Might as well stay in bed.

As a writer, you have lots of options for finding structure. Deadlines, contests, and writing classes are all good ways to harness your boundless energy into real words on the page. But even if you don’t have any deadlines, you can give your writing some structure by using the A, B, C, D, E formula. What’s it stand for?

A = Action
B = Background
C = Conflict
D = Development
E = Ending

By breaking down the story-writing process into five simple steps, you narrow the billions of possibilities for starting and writing your story into just one concrete, practical approach. Of course, it’s called a formula for a reason. Stick to the plan too rigidly, and your story might turn out…well, formulaic. You and your readers will have more fun when you add complications and twists. But, just like a jazz musician, it’s worth practicing your scales before you move onto improvisation.

Here’s how it’s done:

Action: Start your story with a compelling action. This action should raise questions in the reader’s mind. Example: Jack and Jill went up the hill. The reader might wonder, “Why did Jack and Jill go up the hill?” This curiosity gets your reader to turn the first page.

Background: Imagine what circumstances could have led up to the initial action – this is the background. The background should at least partially answer the question posed by the reader in response to the action you started with. Example: To fetch a pail of water.  The background section should not be too long in relation to the rest of the story – otherwise, it might seem as if your story is about what happened yesterday, instead of what’s happening right now. Your story will be most compelling if you can find a way to convey background without being purely expository.

Conflict: Next, introduce the central conflict of the story.  The best, richest conflicts provide a story with forward momentum – they require the character to make an action or choice in the scope of the story, which will have real consequences, changing the character's life or outlook in some way.  The conflict should involve both motivation (the character wants something) and stakes (something is at risk).  Example: Jack fell down.

Development: The longest part of the story is usually development.  Development of what? Of the conflict, of course! This is the “what happens” of the story. As the story develops, the conflict will exert pressure on your characters, and they will make choices in response. Those choices may involve resolution of the conflict, escalation of the conflict, or the introduction of a whole new conflict! Example:  And broke his crown.

Ending: At the end of your story, the conflict must be addressed, if not completely resolved. There can still be a conflict at the end – stories shouldn't all end “happily ever after” – but it should be a different conflict than the one you started with.  Something needs to have changed, whether it's something subtle or something big. Some of the best endings are those that could potentially be the beginning of a whole new story. Example: And Jill came tumbling after.

Ready to give it a shot? Write your own story using the A, B, C, D, E formula and share it with your fellow WEbookers by posting it in this project. Bonus: The first five writers to submit a story will receive personalized feedback from yours truly – priceless!

WEbook Writing Secrets

Improve your writing with WEbook Writing Secrets, featuring writing tips from masters of the craft. Got a secret we don’t know about? Visit my profile and submit a writing tip of your own.  The best of the bunch will be published here and in the WEbook Toolbox. Authors will receive credit, and a link to their personal writing or website.

 

Start Writing Now!

To try your hand at writing short stories, sign up for WEbook today!

-- Melissa

WEbooker of the WEek Writes the Book on Feedback

I like to think of myself as pretty hip to the WEbook scene. Every single new WEbooker receives a message from me, containing priceless pointers on writing, reading, reviewing, and generally hanging out on the site. I have like 6 million WEbook friends. (Okay, more like 552. But you, dear reader, could make it 553, if only you cared.)  I spend all day reading WEbook projects, chiming in on my favorite forums, writing about WEbook on this blog, and singing "Yellow Submarine"to myself at the top of my lungs.

Still, not even I, professional super-WEbooker, can possibly have a line on every great project or person on the site -- which is why I now accept nominations for both featured projects and WEbooker of the WEek. That policy is paying off today.

I was tickled pink when MJ_Heiser wrote to tell me of Julian_Finn, this WEek's WEbooker. How exciting! I'd never heard of the guy!  MJ_Heiser assured me that, not only was Julian_Finn an astoundingly skilled writer, he also gave some of the best feedback on the site.

I have a serious soft spot for feedback, so I checked out Julian_Finn's profile. Here's what I found: Julian_Finn has submitted work to five collaborative writing projects on WEbook. He's particularly fond of a short piece he wrote for Fresh Flash, called "A song for every occasion," which, he says, "is about the Beatles and the end of the world."

But Julian_Finn's feedback really takes the cake. To date, he has written 162 reviews on WEbook. And we're not talking about the "OMG this is sooooo graet, lol" kind of review. No, Julian_Finn is such a fantastic feedbacker, he could write the book on it. (If I hadn't done that already, in the WEbook Guide to Feedback.) He digs right into plot, character, logic, and more, and lets writers know what they're doing right -- and what still needs work.

Want proof?  Check out Chapter 4, Part 2 of MJ_Heiser's novel, Turn the Page. Says Julian_Finn about this piece of writing:

Your prose in this section is sooo crisp and so clean that I didn't have to pull out my trusty notepad once. I loved Scott's perspective on Ashley -- great way to have us see what's going on with her, without maudlin journal entries or stream of consciousness moping.

With constructiveness and specificity like that, it's no wonder Julian_Finn is WEbooker of the WEek. But who is he really? Like a good journalist, I got to the bottom of things with some tough questions.

Q: Julian_Finn, who are you really?

A: I grew up in Ottawa, Ontario and, since my 18th birthday, have lived in almost every province in Canada, as well as six month stints in Malaysia and Thailand during an ill advised "finding myself" trip. I've spent most of my adult life working a variety of corporate sales gigs as well as a year spent running my own promotional marketing firm in Halifax.

Q: How many meals do you eat in a day?

A: Two, and I graze constantly while I write. Which is a bad thing.

Q: What is your candid opinion on the value of naps?

A: While I love them dearly, I always feel guilty after taking a long one. Especially when I'm in writing mode, nothing saps the creative juices like too much sleep. Go for walks instead. 

Q:  What was your childhood bedroom like?

A: Much like my living room as an adult. Superman posters on every wall and boxes of comic books stacked everywhere. I'm constantly mystified by the fact that I never outgrew that particular phase.

Q: What's next for your writing?

A: I'm extremely grateful for the help I received from other WEbookers during the writing process; I'm a big believer in the feedback process and I truly feel that any writer can benefit from a critical audience. I just started work on my next book and will posting the first few chapters on the site sometime next week.

WEbooker of the WEek

Do you have a line on the wonderfullest writer on WEbook? The fantastickest feedbacker? Or anyone else who goes above and beyond to make WEbook the best writing, reading, and publishing community on the internet? Drop me an email, or visit my profile and send me a message with the title "WEbooker of the WEek" to nominate your favorite WEbooker and he or she will have a shot at joining the ranks of the immortals -- and getting a free WEbook T-shirt to boot.

Join WEbook Today

If reading about Julian_Finn convinced you of the value of feedback, sign up for WEbook today and start reading, writing, and feedbacking. If it didn't convince you, I'll eat my hat. And I don't even wear a hat!

-- Melissa

WEbook Guide to Feedback Now Available

Wondering how to get, give, and receive writing feedback on WEbook?  Look no further.

Part 1:  The Golden Rule
It takes feedback to make feedback.

Part 2:  The 5 Rules of Great Feedback
Want to be a better writer?  Learn to give better feedback.

Part 2.5:  How to Read and Write Poetry
Feedback tips and more, especially for poets and readers of poetry.

Part 3:  You've Got Feedback!
No more curling up in a corner and crying over your reviews.

Not a WEbook Member Yet?

Join today, and start writing!

-- Melissa

Writing about Food – With a Sense of Humor

What’s Van Gogh’s favorite food?

Why, a perfectly formed, delicious ear…of corn, of course.

Curious about what Andy Warhol or Pablo Picasso might whip up in the kitchen on their days off? How about Mussolini or Kim Jong-il? Or even Buddha, Moses, or Mary Magdalene?

WEbooker Cahoots is putting together some seriously comical cookbooks, and you’re invited to join. The Starving Artist Cookbook provides recipes based on artists from Basquiat to Matisse. The Dictator’s Cookbook? You guessed it – “Even dictators need to take the time to eat.” The Religious Iconography Cookbook is a kitschy collection of recipes featuring figures from the world’s major religions.  Cahoots’ newest project, The Rock Star’s Cookbook, helps fans of Elvis, Iggy Pop, and The Rolling Stones find their way around the kitchen.

Bonaparte’s Berry Mousse? Hilarious! But would you want to eat it? Cahoots assures readers that all entries are completely practical, and adapted from classic recipes.

It all started when Cahoots was watching a news story about a woman who saw the Virgin Mary in a rotten grape. If people see religious imagery in food, figured Cahoots, maybe they’ll have fun making food designed for their favorite religious figures. The Religious Iconography Cookbook was born, and the other projects quickly followed.

Cahoots is well aware that these projects might touch a nerve for some. She explains: “We assume our readers are bright and know what we are kidding about.  I find that all things kitsch are a bit offensive.  1950s kitsch items are usually a little sexist, but modern women still get a chuckle out of ‘em.  By having fun with all the religions and making fun of the bad dictators of the world, I believe we are bringing them all to the same level.  This makes us more human and more able to relate to one another.  These books are not meant to strike terror in people, or to bring about theological discussions – they’re strictly for fun.”

The best part? All WEbookers are welcome to contribute their own recipe ideas to The Dictator’s Cookbook and The Rock Star’s Cookbook. WEbookers interested in contributing to The Starving Artist Cookbook and The Religious Iconography Cookbook can request to join these projects.

Join WEbook Today!

WEbook is a great place to read – and cook! To start contributing your own ideas to these featured projects, or other projects on the site, sign up now.

-- Melissa

WEbook Guide to Feedback, Part 3: You’ve Got Feedback! Now What?

Congratulations! You followed the tips in Part 1 of the WEbook Guide to Feedback, about how to encourage fellow WEbookers to weigh in on your writing. You read Part 2 (and, if you’re a poet, Part 2.5), so the feedback you gave others was top notch. The Golden Rule is working, and you’re starting to get all kinds of feedback on your WEbook work – and I do mean all kinds.

Now what? Depending on the feedback you’re getting, you may feel like composing your Nobel Prize acceptance speech – or you may feel more like breaking every key on your keyboard, burning your notebooks, and crawling into a dark corner to cry. Heck, you might feel like breaking every key on your keyboard, burning your notebooks, and crawling into a dark corner to compose your Nobel Prize acceptance speech.

Welcome to the wonderful world of being a writer.

Unless you write only for yourself, or possibly for a group of people who specifically agree not to provide criticism, praise, or feedback of any kind, your readers will have opinions about your work – and, especially if you go out of your way to seek them, by taking a writing class, submitting your work to agents or publications, or posting your writing on WEbook, those readers will tell you their opinions. This can leave you exhilarated, angry, encouraged, discouraged, irritated, happy, or downright confused. Often, you’ll get conflicting opinions from different readers, leaving you wondering how you’ll ever make every reader happy.

Don’t despair. By following these handy rules, you’ll be sure to get the most out of the feedback you receive.

The Rules of Receiving Feedback

1)  Know Your Goals. Before you can benefit from feedback, ask yourself: What do I hope to gain from sharing my work with others and asking for their opinion? For many writers, the easy answer is, “I hope to improve my writing.” However, this may not be the goal of every writer who goes looking for feedback. Often, you may not be looking for ways to improve your writing – instead, you’re more interested in getting the encouragement you need to keep going, or a quick survey of readers’ responses to your work. These are perfectly valid goals. But if you’re not honest with yourself about what your goals are, you may set yourself up for disappointment.

If you can honestly say that you’re looking to improve your writing through feedback, congratulations! You’ve taken a very brave step. You may be able to distill your goals even further – for example, you might decide you want to work specifically on character development, or sentence structure, or plot – but sometimes it’s enough to know that you want to make your work better, in general.

Keep in mind that goals change. Your goal for one piece of writing may not be the same a week later for a different project.

Warning! Avoid this common goal! I see this goal all the time in requests for feedback on WEbook – I’ve even fallen prey to it myself a few times. What is it? “I want someone to tell me whether I’m good/have talent or not, so I’ll know whether to quit or keep writing.” Forget about it. Even if you spend the rest of your life writing, and actually get a chance to compose that Nobel Prize speech one day, no one will ever be able to tell you whether it’s worth your while. And if you really want to write, no one will ever be able to permanently discourage you. The fact is, talent isn’t set in stone. “Great” writers write lousy books – or at least have lousy days – and “lousy” writers have moments of great inspiration, and, with determination and elbow grease, produce good work. Don’t waste your time trying to determine where exactly you fall on the talent scale. Instead, figure out what you want to accomplish with your writing, and try to find ways to accomplish it.

2) Find the Feedback that Serves Your Goals. When you go looking for feedback, you’ll get all kinds of responses, from all kinds of readers. Learn how to identify the feedback that helps you achieve the goals you’ve spent so much time identifying. How do you do this? Easy! If you’re trying to improve your writing, ask yourself, “Can I learn something from this feedback?” If you still can’t tell, ask yourself a few more questions: “Do I respect this person’s opinion? Does this person follow the basic rules for quality feedback? Does this person understand what I am trying to accomplish with this piece of writing?” If you’re looking for encouragement, ask yourself, “Does this feedback inspire me to keep writing?” If you want to know what readers think of your work, ask yourself, “Do I believe that this person’s opinion is honest and valuable?” If the answer to any of these questions is no, ask your personal secretary to file that piece of feedback under “Ignore.”

3) Never Complain, Never Explain. I don’t think Henry Ford, II was much of writer, but he turned out a good quote. What does it mean when it comes to feedback?

Never Complain: When you get feedback that doesn’t serve your goals, thank the feedbacker, get your personal secretary to file it under “Whatever,” and move on. Remember: By posting your work on an open website, you welcome comments from all kinds of people, operating at all different levels of expertise, sensitivity, and even common courtesy. Even when it seems like someone has been unforgivably rude (“He called my poem crap!”), you can almost always chalk it up to the vagaries of contemporary internet culture. Shake your head, allow yourself one mournful “Kids these days,” and go along your way. There are exceptions – if someone’s feedback violates WEbook’s site policies, it should be reported to abuse <at> WEbook <dot> com. How can you tell if someone’s feedback really crosses the line? Read the WEbook Terms of Use (look for section 10), or ask yourself, “If someone said this to me in public, would I call my lawyer?”

Never Explain: This is one of the most important rules of receiving feedback. Do not, under any circumstances, defend or explain your work to someone providing feedback. Your work must speak for itself. If you have to explain what you were “trying to do,” it’s not speaking loudly enough. If a piece of feedback has passed the Rule # 2 test (that means it serves your goals, for those of us with short attention spans), and you think your reader doesn’t “get” something about your writing, this is a problem with the writing, not the reader. This is especially true if you hear the same kind of feedback from more than one reader. Saying, “But I’m trying to make Maury seem like the kind of guy who would cut up his wife’s underwear with nail clippers,” is a waste of your time. Any sentence starting with “But” is a waste of your time. If you really, truly don’t think your reader “gets” your story – and you really, truly think it’s the reader’s fault – this means his or her feedback doesn’t pass the Rule #2 test. Thank your feedbacker for his or her time, have your personal secretary file it under “Nice effort, blockhead,” and go make yourself a peanut butter sandwich.

4) Never Take it Personally. This is kind of the same as “Never complain,” but it’s worth saying twice. Feedback about your writing is not a personal indictment of your character, your worth as a human being, or even – get this – your skill as a writer. It is about that particular piece of writing, period. If a feedbacker makes it personal, have your secretary’s secretary file it under “Fool, you don’t know me!”, and start planning your next vacation to Fiji. (Personal attacks disguised as “feedback” are not even worth your secretary’s time.)

5) Let it Marinate. After you’ve identified the feedback that serves your goals, and had your secretary or your secretary’s secretary file the rest, take a moment to let it all sink in. Don’t jump in and start fixing every little thing someone says needed fixing. Instead, take a nice, long walk. Then come back and comb through all the valuable feedback you’ve gotten. Classify the advice into broad categories. You’ll have to make up your own, depending on what you wrote and the kind of feedback you got, but some examples include: Character; plot; structure; theme; and grammar and word choice. In general, you should tackle big issues before getting down to the nitty gritty. Why make your second sentence absolutely perfect, if you end up cutting that sentence when you change the story’s structure?

If you’re getting continuous feedback through WEbook, you may find it helpful to set aside a time – say, a week, two weeks, a month, or whatever – to work on things like plot and structure, then another time for working on character development, atmosphere, and setting, and yet another time for ironing out the language. You, too, can use the feedback field to chime in and let your readers know what kind of feedback you’re looking for at the moment. If you do receive feedback on grammar while you’re working on the plot, file it away for later. (Do it yourself – your secretary deserves a day off.)

6) Know When to Say When. At some point, you may feel you’ve received all the feedback you need, and done all the work you can. Congrats! Submit your work for publication (WEbook’s next voting cycle opens on October 21), and get started on your next project. If you don’t get chosen for publication right away, don’t sweat it. You might come back to the project with fresh eyes in a month or two, and radically improve it. In the meantime, enjoy your accomplishment!

Join WEbook Now!

Ready to get feedback on your writing? Sign up for WEbook and watch the comments roll in.

-- Melissa