5 crucial steps to take after getting feedback ✔️
Today's post is a guest feature by Kat Lewis.
Getting feedback on your work is crucial.
If you want to improve your writing and ensure your story reaches its full potential, at some point, you are going to need to get external feedback on it. Feedback from a critique partner, beta reader, agent, or editor can help you find your blind spots and transform your story for the better.
But as helpful as this feedback can be, it can also be overwhelming.
Processing and implementing constructive feedback isn’t always a simple or straightforward process. What if you don’t agree with the feedback you get? How do you decide which comments to implement and which to disregard? And if you get page after page of critique from an editor or agent, where do you even begin?
Today, fiction writer and video game narrative designer Kat Lewis is taking over Chapter Break to break down the revision process with a step-by-step guide for processing and implementing feedback in your manuscript.
My name is Kat Lewis, and I’m the founder of Craft with Kat, a Substack newsletter with practical craft lessons for writers. I use my professional experience as a fiction writer and video game narrative designer to demystify the writing process. Craft with Kat takes the “mushiness” out of writing with monthly craft lessons and concrete guiding questions that help you achieve your vision for your stories.
Today, we’re demystifying the revision process. At some point in your writing life, you will receive feedback on your novel, short story, or any other writing project you may be working on. This feedback may come from a classmate, beta reader, or even an agent or editor. In my career, I’ve received feedback in corporate settings for the narratives I write for video games. I’ve also revised my work with feedback from my agent, critique partners, and workshop in my MFA program.
Here are five concrete steps I take to process and implement feedback in my writing.
1. Meet and listen
In general, feedback for your work will typically come in two forms:
Written Feedback: Critique letters, line notes, etc.
Verbal Feedback: Formal workshops, calls with beta readers or agents
A lot of the time, you will receive feedback in both forms for the same pages you share. For example, in my MFA program, our class would discuss each other's work during our workshop and then pass line notes and critique letters back to the writer. My agent also sends me her written feedback a few days before our next meeting.
In my experience, I find that the less I talk during these meetings, the more I learn about my own editorial vision for the story. I process verbal feedback best when I'm an active listener and write down the comments and questions that resonate with me. If I do speak during these meetings, I only ask questions. Asking questions keeps me curious about my own editorial vision. For me, the most effective questions focus on specific craft issues. Here’s an example:
Ineffective Question: Do you like this chapter?
Effective Question: Where is the pacing most effective in this chapter? Where does your attention start to wane?
I can’t revise to make a beta reader like a chapter more, but I can revise to make the pacing more effective.
2. Take a break
After receiving verbal or written feedback, I take a much-needed break. I won’t read written feedback, my meeting notes, or even open my story’s Word document again for a week. I need this time to make space for my feelings. For me, my revisions are never productive when I’m revising as a reaction rather than revising with intention that’s aligned with my editorial vision. Reactive feelings often fade within a week. If I have any ideas during that week, I’ll quickly jot them down in my journal app, but my priority for the week is to simply live my life.
3. Outline your feedback letter
Feedback letters from my agent are often ten pages single spaced. A letter like this can be overwhelming to process. Whether your feedback letter is one page or eight, I recommend creating a reverse outline of the letter.
In your outline, write down all of the feedback that resonates with you. Below each piece of feedback, write down the following:
One action you’ll take to implement it
One guiding question that will prompt your revision.
Here’s an example:
Feedback: Paula’s character goals are introduced on page 25, but they’re introduced too late in the story.
Action: Introduce Paula’s goals before page 5.
Guiding Question: What characters and conflict need to appear in the opening scene to establish that Paula wants to become a professional tennis player?
The action tells you where in your revision you will physically make the change. The guiding question gives you a writing prompt to help you implement said change. By the end of this exercise, you will have a revision plan with concrete steps to achieve your editorial vision.
4. Accept all the track changes
This advice comes from a tweet from writer Matt Bell. He says:
When I get notes from someone I trust, the first thing I do now is blindly Accept All, and then as I reread, I only check my original if something feels off. I care deeply about my sentences but I know I'm an over-writer; a chopped clause I never needed isn't worth its own angst.
I saw this tweet two years ago, and it’s been my favorite addition to my revision process. Like he says in the tweet, this step only works with feedback from someone you truly trust, and this strategy has worked so well when I’m working on a book with my agent.
5. Retype your next draft (no copy/paste!)
Retyping my next draft in a new document is important for my revision process because it’s much easier for me to omit paragraphs, chapters, or entire storylines than to delete them outright. This process also makes my line-to-line writing crisp and clean because I’m less likely to preserve a clunky sentence or metaphor if I have to retype it.
Whenever possible, I handwrite the revision first and then type it up in the new document. Retyping in general makes me closely consider the choices I made in response to my feedback. Handwriting helps me verify my decisions because I have to make each decision twice, once in the handwritten draft and again in the retyped draft.
If this post was helpful to you and your writing life, check out Craft with Kat for craft lessons, AMAs, and firsthand insight into the publishing industry.
About Kat
Kat Lewis is a fiction writer and video game narrative designer based in Seoul. She is the founder of Craft with Kat, a Substack newsletter with practical craft lessons for writers. Her debut novel, Good People, is forthcoming from Simon & Schuster.
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Instagram: @katjolewis
Twitter: @katjolewis
This was so helpful and exactly what I needed write now. Immediately subscribed to Kat's newsletter as well. Thanks for sharing!
This was so validating! I am doing my first substantial round of feedback driven revisions and my inclination was to open a blank document and rewrite those chapters. But I stopped myself because it seemed like overkill. Now I'm seeing this is a valid way to go through the pages again while integrating the feedback. Thank you!