I am doing something a little different with this blog post. I polled people on Google+ with two questions.
The point of this experiment was to get feedback from a variety of sources. This was something I’ve always been interested in doing, because I am _not_ a reflection of the majority. I’m just one fish in a great big sea, so I’d rather see whole pictures whenever possible. This is also a very, very minor number of writers, but I found their responses quite fascinating.
Here are the questions.
For writers:
How has receiving reviews, critiques, or feedback on your writing influenced you as a writer?
For Reviews, Critiquers, and Readers:
When you give a writer or author feedback/reviews/critiques on their writing, what sort of response (if any) do you expect from them? Why?
A big thank-you to everyone who participated in this. It is really appreciated, seeing the different points of view and approaches.
These are in no particularly order, but I think they were posted in order of receiving the comments.
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Shen Hart - As a writer receiving feedback, reviews etc has helped me greatly. I have learnt where my faults are and how to improve them, it’s also driven me to continue trying and improving. I’ve come on leaps and bounds the last year with huge thanks to people who have taken the time to give me feedback etc.
It’s also helped me find my focus and voice.
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Matthew Graybosch - I depend on my wife’s feedback. Something that sounds good to me, or makes sense to me, might not make sense to her.
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April Brown - Hi Rebecca,
Just to show I can’t follow the rules:
How did critiquing someone help me? I found they were making the same mistakes others said I was making. While easy to see in another’s work, seeing and fixing them in my own is difficult.
And to show I can follow the rules:
Most critiques I have received have been extremely general (not seeing enough emotion). One however, showed me the difference between a reviewer who reads, and one who skims. Said reviewer kept asking questions, that if they had actually read it, were answered paragraphs, or pages before. Learning to separate the useful, and ignore the unhelpful is a big task. Oh, and a some people think I use too many commas. I only use them when I need them.
When I review others work, what do I want and why? I want to learn about recognizing errors in my own. I want a good story. I want to help others. And, I’d like to know if my critique helped them, or was it unhelpful. Did I focus on what they needed? Did I go to far off on a tangent (especially a theme that struck me wrong). Would they want me to critique for them again?
Website: aprilbrownwrites
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Huushiita Brooke - I will be honest and say that I haven’t received too much feedback from others. However, Jeff does critique my work relentlessly. I find this helps because it’s always pushing me to find the best and clearest way to write, among other things. Also, it helps me learn to not make the same continuous mistakes that I end up doing, since he does point them out. It’s a really good learning tool, that’s for sure.
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Linda Horne - When you give a writer or author feedback/reviews/critiques on their writing, what sort of response (if any) do you expect from them? Why?
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I do expect a thank you for the time I put in for the review. There are many times that I do not give “stellar” reviews, and perhaps not surprisingly, a lot of people have asked for private reviews. I do not expect glowing, raving appreciation. I also expect that if an author has questions about my reviews, they come and ask me. I have reasons for what I tell them, and although I attempt to be as objective as possible, there are times that my view is colored and I just can’t help it. They need to know if this is why I wrote something unsavory. It could be something as elemental as punctuation or something as complicated as what I think the market for their writing is doing. Any other responses are purely up to the author. Putting the review on their site, asking me to send the review to a particular site or physical store.
I know that because of some reviews, I will not always get a response I like, or even consider polite. I’m pretty hardy. I can take a scraping, and I hope that those that I review can take it too.
E-book It Reviews
www.ebookitreviews.com
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Heather Dudley - Critiques, I believe, are vital to any would-be professional’s career. One of the biggest hurdles any writer will face is having to edit their own work, and if you can’t critique someone else’s, you’ll find it much more difficult to be critical of your own. In giving critiques, I’ve learned far more about what does and does not work than I ever could simply plugging away on my own works.
I work with a great critique group, who shares a variety of genres and styles that I would never read on my own. Reading these things that lie outside of my own comfort zone gives me a stronger grasp of my own storytelling skills!
Now, having my own work critiqued is something akin to watching someone perform abdominal surgery without anesthesia; it hurts. A LOT. But it’s a necessary pain, one that results in stronger works. The best critiques often come from those who don’t read fantasy, my primary genre. They will look at certain things that my fantasy readers would never twitch over, and want to know why or why not I chose this particular phrase, or why that action took place. It gives me an outsider’s impression. That’s something that’s important if I ever hope to appeal to a wider audience.
I firmly believe that critiquing, and being critiqued, are crucial aspects to a writer’s career. The best writers are the ones who are the most willing to hear their critics. And we all know what happens when a writer jumps the shark and decides that no one could possibly be a better critic than herself… and refuses the touch of any save herself.
Not that I’m naming names.
I don’t expect anything back from those I critique, other than a simple “thank you.” I don’t expect them to take all, or even most, of my suggestions. All I want is for them to understand where I’m coming from… a place where I genuinely desire to help. It’s never personal. As long as you take it for what it’s meant, and I get a thank you, I’m happy. 
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Owen Adams - As a writer, I find feedback to be essential. I really believe that writing is about communication, communication of ideas, communication of principles. Maybe just communication of a great story. If someone leaves me feedback, they’re telling me how well I communicated to them, if their feedback is negative they’re telling me my message didn’t get across. I’ve tried to take criticism in as much as I can because I feel like I’ll lose my audience if I don’t Has that influenced me? I honestly think that it has been the force that has shaped me as a writer the most. I used to feel like I was speaking a foreign language and struggling to be understood. With each revision I come closer to being a fluent author.
As the giver of advice, I don’t expect much. Not all advice is good and it’s the writer’s job to decide if they’ll be influenced. However, I do expect writers to be courteous. Most advice is given in good faith, not just to be cruel of obnoxious. A writer might disagree with a piece of advice, but they should never be rude to the person giving it.
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Sharon T Rose - As a writer, feedback is the best and hardest part of my work. I love it when people love my writing. I cry when people don’t love it. I grumble and grouse when they “just don’t get it.” And I know that I have blind spots that only others can help me see.
One of the best crit sessions I ever had was with a friend over coffee. For almost an hour, he took a sledge to my plot, characters, et al, and I had to defend, explain, and evaluate everything I chose to do. It was a bloody exchange that left me battered and my story bettered.
When crits come in text-only format, it’s hard to gauge the intent of the person offering it. Those are the worst, because I don’t know if the person is being kind yet firm, or just a jerk. It’s very easy for a comment to crawl up under my skin and camp out when the reviewer did not mean it in any negative way. It’s also easy for me to miss something the reviewer wanted me to know.
When I give feedback and criticism, I expect a civilized response from the author. Since I have the same kinds of problems, I know what it’s like for them, and I know the importance of remaining calm and professional in the face of a challenge to a writing decision. I don’t expect the author to agree with or use all my suggestions, but I do expect something a little more mature than a screaming, profane tantrum. That sort of thing makes the relationship awkward.
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Jillian Jenkins - Reviews have taught me a number of things about my writing, and about my genre. Most of the time, people are helpful in providing constructive feedback in both areas. Minus a couple of really mean reviews (and I mean, MEAN), I have yet to receive a negative review that didn’t have something in it I can use. Sometimes they’re my more favorite ones to receive because the good ones don’t teach as much. Or I like the ones where they’re in the middle. they liked it, but had a few things to point out that need some oomph.
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T.B. McKenzie - Feedback has transformed my writing. Early on I paid for a MS assessment, believing of course I was ready to publish. The detailed feedback I received was the best money I ever spent. And that was still only led to a new draft that then got the attention of a publisher who then went on to edit is just as much again. Maybe one day I will be “editor proof” but for my first book, I needed all the help I could get. In purely quantitive terms, my original draft was over 200,000 words. Then it went down to 155k, and now, published, it is 120k. Just like a good stock, the flavour intensified as evaporation occurred.
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I will let you draw your own conclusions. As for me, I thought these opinions were very interesting and well worth thinking about. Also, as an after thought, this demonstrates that everyone gets something out of receiving and giving critiques — but, as a caveat, that something differs for each writer, reviewer, or critiquer. Definitely something worth thinking about.