[PUBLIC POST] Criticisms of your writing

[ljwrites]

To members: Sorry I completely forgot about this week's midweek Open Chat. I was going to space it out from the last one, and then I got absent-minded, and now it's a bit too late. I'll resume next week, and schedule a post in advance so I don't forget.

To everyone: Let's talk about criticism, specifically criticism of your writing. Some questions to get you started:

- How do you generally respond to negative feedback?
- What's a piece of critical feedback that was painful to you?
- Did criticism help you, and how?
- What was an unhelpful piece of criticism?
- Have you make any changes in response to negative feedback?
- What do you think constitutes helpful negative feedback?
- Giving criticism can be as tricky as receiving it. Do you have any techniques for giving effective criticism?

Feel free to answer one or more of these questions, or to relate any other anecdotes or thoughts about critical feedback.

We'll cheer ourselves up next week with the flip side of this post, positive feedback, so stay tuned for that!

Comments

[ljwrites]

What you're asking about here would for me fall under "constructive criticism"

I actually used "negative feedback" to encompass both types, constructive criticism and also the unhelpful kind, hence the mention of unhelpful criticism in the post.

imho, "negative feedback" is not constructive, simply an expression of dislike.

Given that "positive" and "negative" are antonyms, though, if constructive criticism is not negative feedback it should be positive or at least neutral feedback. Yet constructive criticism also comes from a starting point of "I didn't like this/this didn't work," which seems to me negative rather than positive or neutral.

(Where's the "pedantry" icon when I need it?)

[dhampyresa]

Yet constructive criticism also comes from a starting point of "I didn't like this/this didn't work," which seems to me negative rather than positive or neutral.

Not for me. For me it comes from a place of "this is good but IT COULD BE EVEN BETTER let me help" -- I guess it's the (perceived) intent that matters.