How many times have you asked for feedback on a work-in-progress and felt…disappointed with the response?
Feedback is something we all – for the most part – need as artists. It helps us step outside of our work, bring our works-in-progress to the next level and take one more step toward a finished work.
However, many times when we’re receiving feedback, we can feel discouraged or frustrated with the way in which the feedback is delivered. Sometimes, it can even create tension in our relationships with important colleagues in our lives.
In this blog, I’m going to give you some guidance on how to best ask for and receive feedback while minimizing the risk of contentious exchanges and ensure the feedback you get best supports the progress of your work.
Note: I am not perfect at this myself, but when I keep the below in mind, it makes the process of asking for and receiving feedback much easier and more productive.
Want to give better feedback? Here’s how!
How to Ask for Feedback
Consider your Relationship
First, before you ask another artist for feedback, consider your relationship with that artist.
It can be an ego blow when you reach out, vulnerably, to another artist for feedback and they turn you down. You can minimize the chance of rejection by considering who you’re asking for feedback from and ensuring your ask is appropriate given your relationship to that person.
If you know this person well and have collaborated with them before or have a strong report, their more likely to be willing to give extensive feedback or to join you in an hour-long rehearsal to talk through your WIP (work-in-progress).
If you don’t know this person very well, maybe don’t ask them to read your entire two-hundred-and-twenty-one-page novel and give you extensive notes for free. You’re more likely to get a yes by requesting a smaller ask (like to read one chapter and give feedback on a specific aspect) or by offering them payment for their time.
On top of this, check in with yourself about whether this person is capable of giving you the feedback you’re looking for.
This might sound harsh, but some people just don’t share aesthetic preferences that align with our work and others just aren’t good at expressing their opinions in a way that we can hear them. Take this into consideration when you’re requesting feedback. Think about your relationship with this person and how their opinions of your work in the past, or of others’ work, has left you feeling.
If you’ve often felt discouraged or even offended at their responses to the work of others or your own work, they may not be the right person to ask for feedback from.
Be specific
The best way to get crappy feedback is to be vague about the feedback you’re looking for. On the flip side, you don’t want to be so specific that all you get is a simple “yes” or “no” answer. “Did you like it?” or “What did you think?” are both sure-fire ways to end up disappointed or even frustrated with the response. Instead, get real with yourself about what you’re wanting from this feedback session.
In the early phases and want to know what’s working? Ask your colleague to please note what resonated with them and what they’d like to see more of.
In the middle phase and fleshing out the structure of the work? Ask your colleague where they’re getting confused, if a specific scene or phrase is resonating, and what needs more detail or exploration.
In the later phases of the work and ready to trim the fat and fine-tune? Ask your colleague where they feel bored, how they rhythm and cadence of the piece are flowing and be specific about the parts of the work that you’re still unsure of or concerned aren’t working as you’d wished they would.
No matter where you are in the process of creating this WIP, I encourage you to ask your colleague to first just regurgitate what they saw, heard, or read. Let them retell you your own story or explain what is happening in your piece.
This simple question can help you see whether your intentions with the WIP are coming through or if their interpretation is way off base. (If they are off base, don’t blame them! They’re subjective experience is true, and you must respect it as such.)
This brings me to the other half of getting feedback…
How to Receive Feedback
Chances are, even if you consider your relationship and are specific about the kind of feedback you’re wanting, you’ll still get uncomfortable or unhelpful responses. You may also get feedback that you disagree with – that doesn’t align with your vision for the work. And, if you’re gathering feedback from a number of colleagues, you may be confused about which feedback to take and which to ignore.
I’ll go through each of these scenarios and give you some suggestions for how to handle each.
Uncomfortable or Unhelpful Responses
First, take a step back. Maybe the way they delivered their feedback was not ideal but that doesn’t mean what they’re saying isn’t beneficial in some way. Before you respond, look for something worth considering in their feedback.
Reformulate it internally in a way that you can more authentically consider. For instance, one infuriating but highly plausible response (depending on who you’re asking advice from) is, “I don’t get it.”
Assuming you’ve already considered your relationship to this person and you generally respect their take on work, take this comment as them being confused or your intention not quite getting through.
If you’re getting this or similarly vague feedback, see it for what it truly is then ask specific, but open-ended questions. You could start with pulling out the positive aspects, then more into the negative. “Was there anything aesthetically or otherwise that resonated with you?” “If you had to take a wild guess, what would you think this might be about/saying?”
Or – if you’re a bit more thick-skinned or far along enough in the process to feel more assured about your WIP – go straight for the jugular and dig directly into the gritty realities.
- “What parts were especially confusing?”
- “Did you find anything particularly distracting or even boring?”
- “Is there a particular aspect you’re ‘not getting’ or is the entire piece confusing from medium and structure to the finer, individual choices?”
Hopefully asking these kinds of questions can draw something helpful from this type of response. Either way, whether you’re able to turn their response into something useful, or the whole experiment was kind of a dud, make sure to thank them for their feedback.
Whether you’ve learned something useful about your WIP or simply to never ask this person for feedback again, they’ve taught you something valuable and donated their most valuable possession – their time. So, thank them!
Feedback in the Wrong Direction
Some feedback just misses the mark and is full of ideas and suggestions that don’t align with your artistic vision. Don’t abandon your vision! Other artists are not the captain of your creative ship. However, even the feedback you know isn’t the right direction for your WIP there is still useful information hiding in this deceiving feedback.
Again, start with taking a step back. Take a breath and home into the what about their experience has them thinking this drastic change in direction is the right choice.
There are two likely reasons and you’ll have to uncover which one is happening in your circumstance.
1. Your Vision isn’t Translating
The first reason is that perhaps your intention and vision aren’t shining through. If you think this is the case, go back to what they saw and ask them to simply tell you what they think your WIP is about. If it’s a narrative piece, ask them to summarize it.
This can tell you what they garnered from your work and whether your vision is being communicated effectively or not. If it’s an issue of communication, you can get into the weeds of where the miscommunication is occurring. You may find that they simply misinterpreted a few critical events or aspects in the WIP. In this case, you can look at how to add more clarity to those aspects.
2. The Work isn’t Making the Desired Emotional or Aesthetic Impact
If it’s not this, and the person giving you feedback has in fact grasped the overall vision or message of your work, it may be that particular aspects were confusing, boring, or out of place.
In this case, identify the specific aspects or parts of your work where you lost them. If they give you a plot idea, identify what part of the plot started to confuse or bore them. You don’t have to take their suggested direction, but it may be worth looking into that section or chapter to see whether it’s falling short. Or, try to identify what aspect of the piece isn’t meshing for them. Ask them questions that help you get to the bottom of the aspects and/or sections that are losing your viewer/reader/listener.
And, of course, always thank them for their time. Even if you don’t appreciate their creative input, they’ve given you valuable information and spent their energy analyzing your WIP. Be grateful for their time and input, even if they give you unwarranted suggestions.
Which Feedback to Implement and Which to Ignore?
If you’ve asked multiple people for feedback, you might be receiving conflicting opinions and struggling to identify which pieces of feedback you should implement versus which pieces you should toss aside. There are two main things to consider when it comes to consolidating and filtering through feedback:
Ask yourself: What is your most frequent feedback? Which pieces of feedback are related?
First, try to categorize the types of feedback you’ve received. Then, identify the areas of your work that have caused widespread confusion, boredom, or suggestions. If the majority of feedback givers are bringing up the same section or similar feedback, this is probably worth addressing.
This isn’t to say that you need to follow the advice as given by those individual’s input. It simply means that many people are feeling similar confusion or are getting similarly stuck on a specific aspect or section of your work. Time to figure out what those sticking points are and addressing them in your next iteration.
Trust your instincts
The previous advice I’ve given as far as each audience member’s subjective experience being true is still valid. However, you are the creator of this WIP, and you are the only one who can dictate its direction. Consider the validity in every piece of advice but trust your instincts as to whether this critique is important to your overall vision or if it’s just a personal sticking point that isn’t too important to your work.
Again, check in with the collective input because if many people have similar comments, you probably need to address those sections. However, don’t get bogged down by every criticism as this is your work, not theirs. It’s your artistic vision that’s going to bring the work to its fruition.
Your Artful Effort
Make a list of questions you have about your current WIP based on where you are in the process and the aspects of the piece you’re still fleshing out. Use this list to get specific, directed feedback from willing peers.
Lovely, thoughtful post.
Thanks lady. Love you xo