Dear Christian Indies,
Hopefully, you were with us for last week’s episode, in which we covered the pleasure and pain that is receiving negative feedback. If not, you missed our discussion coming full circle to the idea that sometimes negative feedback is actually in order, and can propel a writer to the next level in her craft. After all, if you are never told that your passive voice is making your writing less impactful, or that you are inappropriately using parentheticals, em dashes, or other marks of punctuation, how on earth will you ever improve?
We discussed in that episode how each of us values so much our writing group friends who are willing to give it to us straight, and how they are invaluable to us and to our growth both as writers and as human beings. But with that in mind, one is left to wonder, “should I, therefore, learn how to speak up in my own writing group, and give those who contribute the negative feedback that I think they need to hear? And if so, what is the “right” way to deliver such a message, especially considering the notion that “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous…”?
We’re going to cover this topic on today’s episode of the podcast, with a heavy emphasis on the second part of that particular verse: “…nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby .” Of course, the goal of honest feedback is not necessarily to provoke an author to “righteousness”, but if your heart is in the right place—desirous to make the work (and your writing group) better, even if the truth “hurts,” it’s important that you learn to speak up, and do it in a way that is well received by the person you are endeavoring to help.
It’s an episode guaranteed to make you think differently about giving (and receiving!) negative feedback in your writing group, and we’re sure you won’t want to miss it!
See you there!
-Jamie
