The Princess and I (ie Mom) have been talking about the need for feedback on the stuff we post here. Perhaps some sort of outline of feedback structure/expectations would be helpful? I looked up some good feedback questions and this site has some cool ones. Of course there's always the sandwich method for critiquing, but we all know how I feel about sandwiches (no, really, I don't care, but I thought it would be nice to have more creative guidelines than that).
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| Hey look, it's a sandwich (okay fine, strictly speaking it's a wrap) from the Gambier Deli. And it wasn't even that expensive! |
Other things to think about:
- What format should we give critiques in? Comments (won't work for me now)? Posts? Shared Google docs?
- Should we all be expected to give feedback on all writing posted?
- Should the writer ask questions when they post writing, to guide the critique?
- Furthermore, how often should we be expected to post, and when?
- Will we post creative writing every time, or are updates on our lives/general rants about life/books/TV/people/sandwiches okay?
- Should we provide each other with possible prompts/topics/challenges (that's Logan's word)?
If anybody doesn't want this to be formalized so much, speak up. I think that holding ourselves to some sort of structure and to our fellow bloggers' expectations will really help us all keep writing :).
Also, is anybody checking this blog like every chance they get, or is that just me? (I'm proud to say I've been here more often than Facebook in the last couple weeks.)
Sorry if I'm writing too much. I just really miss you all and I'm experiencing some Augustus Waters-esque fear that this little project will slip into oblivion if we don't create some guidelines.
THOUGHTS PLEASE :D <3
- Mom
Mollie, just figure out how to comment. please.
ReplyDeleteYeah, we should try to give feedback on most everything we can. It helps to know someone is actually reading.
I think it's important for the author to ask a specific question when they post something. For example, a lot of the time, when I'm writing something, I'm worried about a part not making sense or the "themes" not being clear. Everything can make sense in my head, but if you can't understand, it doesn't matter. You guys probably know what I'm talking about. You can't grow if you don't take a risk, and if that taken risk turns out to just fail, it's important for you to know that so you can make it better.
In short, ask questions about the things you're worried about.
I'm going to try to post once a week.
Post about whatever you want. Let's think about this less as just a place to publish and more as a place to talk stuff important to us.
If you have a fun prompt, tell us. But don't feel pressured to randomly think one up.
Correction: I'm going to post at least once a week.
DeleteGOT IT. I had to enable third party cookies. Gosh Google.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Daniel on everything he said. I think the thing we want to be careful of, when asking questions about our own work, is including too many disclaimers (I'm really bad about this). Just letting the work stand on its own.
I think that if anyone has any prompts or "challenge" ideas, they should post that, it'd be cool, but if we want to post other stuff that we've been working on it's fine. Also, share cool articles/literary knowledge that you come across!
I'm going to post at least once a week too, most weeks. Does once a week work for most of us?
Also, if anybody takes feedback particularly badly (ie personally, ie it makes you want to curl up in a ball and forget all forms of written communication until the universe implodes), let us know! If there are any words that people feel are overused or ineffective or that they want people to avoid in their feedback, also let us know. Example: At Antioch (the other workshop I went to) we had this discussion about how some people are offended/don't like it when people use the word "cliche". I get the feeling that we won't have a problem with this, 'cause we're nice people and we want honest feedback, but I figured I'd mention it.
First thing's first: There's no way our critiques will ever be as good or better than the Gambier-Deli sandwiches, not because our critiques are bad in any way, but because the deli sandwiches are the best thing since sliced bread (and that only because the sandwiched are a subset of said sliced bread, or else said sandwiched would be the best thing since, like, the cretaceous [which was pretty awesome, I mean, it's the only era with the Tyrannosaurus Rex proper]). So shoot for the stars but not the sandwiches, guys.
ReplyDeleteComments should be just fine, but if one of us goes all out and creates a feedback of cretaceous-era T-Rex proportions then Googly Docs are perfectly okay too.
I don't think we should ALL be expected to feedback EVERYTHING posted. Especially because some of us specialize in certain areas. Some of us referrig primarily to me, as I am not a poet and feel like a toddler trying to put the camparatively larger square block into the comparatively smaller circle block's hole (that's not euphemismic, trust me) whenever I attempt to give poetry feedback. But I firmly believe we should do our best to comment on/critique every post we personally are able to.
As a general rule, the writer should be asking questions to guide feedback towards the areas in which the writer wants feedback, but I would say that the critiquer doesn't have to stay inside said boundaries. Meaning, they should attempt to answer all the questions, but they can give feedback on parts of the story on which no questions were asked. And no-question submission should be allowed (though discouraged) in case the writer wants an entirely rounded critique of the story or they can't come up with any questions, for some reason or another.
Personally, my writing pace is roughly glacial. I'll shoot for at least once a month, but I'll post feedback for often, hopefully once or more a week. So no expectations for posting (within reason, no slacking for a year and a half), but feedback as often as personally possible.
Creative writing posts should be the norm: as much as I love you people, I'd rather this not devolve into a daily journal-type life update thing. But writing also shouldn't be the only thing posted! We should be allowed to post meta-discussions and interesting things we find and the occasional "hey guys this is whay happened to me the past few months and here are photos of my beautiful face going through the end stages of puberty!" update. Maybe at like a 2:1 ratio (writing:misc). This of course can be disregarded if it's something big, like being accepted into a college or say running off to Southeastern Ohio to come talk to me about existential crises.
Prompts are cool but like Daniel said, not necessary or crucial.
I have no opinion on feedback structure and am open to experimentation.
This is also my second time writing this because I accidentally refreshed my browser. Just so you guys know how important you are to me.
~Logster Out