Everything is writable...

“And by the way, everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt.”

― Sylvia Plath

Giving Constructive Feedback is a Skill

Giving feedback for a creative work sounds like an easy thing. You just tell if you liked it or not. Right? Well, not if you want to give the kind of feedback that'll be taken seriously and really considered - pro feedback. Especially all of us who give feedback as a part of our job need to learn how to give it effective and constructive way.

The basic pattern of constructive feedback goes like this.

1. Tell what was good and why. What works, and why.
It's very typical that people who don't know how to give feedback start it by telling all the things they didn't like. It seems like the easiest way. This, however, makes the creator of the work easily get in the defensive mode. We must remember that all creative - especially artistic - work is way or another extremely personal for the artist. By starting with the things that were good and worked well, you get the creator of the work feel more probably open to receive the less happy feedback that is about to come next. You don't want her/him to start blocking your comments for the rest of the feedback.

2. Tell what needs to be reconsidered and why. What doesn't work currently, and why.
Instead of listing all the things that are "bad" about the work, tell what doesn't work and why. It's highly recommended and effective way to use questions to make the creator realize the things that don't work.

For example. If we have a screenplay with a protagonist that has potential, but seems still really flat: Instead of simply telling "That character is flat", you can express and define it better by saying "What kind of past does that character have?", "What kind of personality he is?", "What is his weakness? And strength?", "What does he want, and what does he actually need?" With these questions it's much more probable that the writer will realize by himself that he hasn't thought about his character enough. And if he really is passionate about his writing, he gets most likely very inspired by the helpful questions.

Another important thing is the ability of giving some ideas after telling what doesn't work. "I think it'd be useful for you to make a background story for this character. For example, I could see him working as a dentist earlier, but got fired because of a dramatic mistake he made. He thinks it wasn't fair. That's why he has that hate towards people with bad teeth - they remind him about the customer whose..." This doesn't mean that the creator needs to automatically take the option you gave. The point is to help the creator to expand his thinking, coming out from the box. Because an extremely common thing in all long-term creative work is that the creator becomes "blind" to his creation as he has been spending long time with it already and can't have objective eyes on it anymore.

3. In the ending, tell one thing (or more) that was good in your opinion or what makes you excited.
The goal in this is to leave the creator with a positive mind, and considering the feedback helpful.

Few other things to remember

• No matter what opinion you say, always remember to tell the reason why you think so. Even with the positive feedback. By telling "I (don't) like this thing" you don't really tell anything helpful or constructive. Only thing it causes is an emotion/reaction towards you, him and/or the creation. However, when you tell "I like this, because it gives a whole new level to the story, as it's a really strong contrast and therefore creates interesting tension between the characters", the creator understand what you mean. 
• Especially people with strong feeling of their own authority towards the creator whose work is being evaluated tend to easily go to the rude/arrogant (=easy) mode about the things that don't work. However, by saying "This story sucks" is far away from professional attitude and doesn't help the creator to make the story better in any way.
• Be sincere and avoid mixed messages. Being sincere however is not the same as letting all frogs come out from your mouth without thinking first. Sincere is about being able to stand behind your words. If you don't like the antagonist wearing a sombrero, don't claim you like it or that it's ok.
• If possible, prepare to the feedback situation beforehand!

Most importantly: Remember that the main point of giving feedback is helping the creator of the work to improve his work and skills. You're the objective eyes, the one who sees the creation from distance, from audience's point of view - that's what every creator needs like air in a long term process. If your main reason to give feedback isn't helping to improve the creation, then most probably you're not the right person to give feedback.


Feel free to write in the comments more of the important things I might or most probably have forgotten to mention!


Another very important thing is how to take feedback. It'll be one of my next posts!

Hasta luego! :)