Last week I read George Saunders' Story Club, the author's Substack newsletter that's full of useful information and inspiration.
In it, he responded to a question about the etiquette around how many times you're committed to read someone else's draft. A writer had submitted pages to a friend, then revised with the friend's notes and asked for comments on the same pages again. Then, rinse and repeat: They went through the cycle again.
We get addicted to the consensus mind and lose track of our own vision. Or, trying to get the big “OK!” from the group, we forget that what the world really wants from us is our own form of realized excess. -George Saunders
You can read the complete newsletter here.
When I read it, I remembered an experience with a critique circle, where I felt caught in the same feedback hamster wheel.
I submitted an early draft of the opening pages of a mystery story to a group I was with. By incorporating my writing buddies' comments, my story underwent a complete transformation in terms of direction and tone.
That result surprised even me, and I was curious. Had they seen something in the original story that I couldn't see? Was this new material what readers wanted to read? Did the adjustments fulfill their purpose? Was this revised work okay? And, BTW, what made 'okay' okay, anyway?
My curiosity compelled me to resubmit the pages to the circle. Guess what? The group provided comments that reshaped the story again, and I itched to resubmit the pages once more.
Feedback doom loop.
In my corporate communications world, it was normal to go through multiple reviews.
In my creative writing world, however, I needed to learn two important things. First, how to own my vision. I had to learn to tap into my obsession with my work. There's nothing wrong with someone introducing another point of view, but I can't let that other idea cloud my vision.
That brings me to the second thing I needed to learn: how to listen to feedback. I had to learn to discern between a useful suggestion and comments that hurt my process and my work.
I hope you read the George Saunders newsletter to examine this feedback loop situation, and that my experience helps you.
Are you with a writing group today? Are comments or people, intentionally or unintentionally, hurting your work? Let me know in the comments below!
I can relate to your journey although you are far ahead of mine. Since middle school, I would write short stories for my own pleasure, generally very descriptive short stories such as one of an old woman on the subway navigating the rush of the crowd and the challenge of the stairs.
In High School I had to take Latin (yes, odd in the 70s), reading literature such as Caesars Gallic Wars and The Iliad , twisted my right style, I began to write in long run on sentences, my college teacher would say “Jose, use a period every once in a while”.
I then entered the business world, the need to write proposals, marketing material and presentations once again…