Feedback can make or break a writer. Here's what's worth listening to.
Writing what you want is liberating — but also dangerous. You put everything on the page and it can seem like a personal attack when someone reads your work and says anything other than “wow, that’s genius”.
Writers — or any “creators” — are arrogant bastards. They have to be. It takes graft to make it in the arts, and creatives need something to support themselves mentally. That’s often an inflated ego they can springboard off when there’s no hope. This ego makes for pretty brittle protection against the real problem – sensitivity.
No matter how you hide it, everybody gets sensitive. Especially writers — the self-hate that might come with bad feedback, or the this-is-shit-no-this-is-amazing conflict you get while working on something.
The pitfall, especially of young writers, is to panic and bend to any feedback they get. Knowing when to act on feedback — or when to give a shit — is an art.
Love what you write
I live by something David Lynch said about art:
There are “two deaths” when creating. One is when people don’t like your work, and the other is when you don’t like your work. So, you “might as well not die two deaths”.
You can’t control what people think of your work — it’s a gamble — but you can control what you think of your work. So, you have to like it. That’s why you chose to create it. If you chop and change it, blindly reacting to feedback, it’ll soon become something else. Something that isn’t you. Then you might die twice by accident.
But writers need to grow and get better — whether they like it or not. How do you do that? With a slow process of practice, picking up inspiration organically as you live your life and compromise (not submission) to feedback.
It’s the last part I want to explore. When should you give a shit about someone’s feedback? When shouldn’t you?
When to give a shit
Writing can be a never-ending cycle of drafts and edits. Paul Thomas Anderson said “writing was like ironing”, a process of smoothening out creases and kinks. At what point do you overdo it and burn your precious work?
It’s key to be selective about the types of feedback to give a shit about. Here’s a list:
Recurring Feedback
If one non-film-industry person says your script is too long, but 10 say the length’s perfect, put this in the ‘I don’t give a shit’ pile. Conversely, if many people say one thing’s wrong, go and address it. This one’s common sense — but sensitive writers can lose that sometimes.
Credible Feedback
The opinion of someone high up in the film industry — especially if they’re involved in the type of movie/genre you’re in — is significant. Take it into account. This could include feedback you can pay for in some competitions, but then you need to judge the credibility of that competition. Be wary. Some aren’t worth giving a shit about.
Contingent Feedback
Here’s the cynical one. If someone asks you to make a change in exchange for the film to be made or for a contract to be signed, consider it. It depends on what they’re asking and what they’re offering, but this goes without saying. We can’t all be Tarantinos at the start.
Industry Formatting
12-point Courier. Script titles starting with INT or EXT. 1.5 inch left page margin and 1 inch on right. These are just some of the rules of formatting a script. Stick to them — festivals, production companies and agencies often won’t read them if you don’t. Just get a good screenwriting software like Final Draft or Trelby to avoid bad feedback on this. Here’s more about other screenwriting dos-and-don’ts.
On-Job Feedback
Another common sense one. If you’re a staff writer working to a brief, it’s your job to make something your boss likes — simple. You can often compromise and write something you like too, but that’s second priority. That is unless you want to lose your job.
A lot of these don’t just apply to screenwriting — but to any creative medium.
When to not give a shit
Film School Story Arcs
Don’t confuse this with industry formatting — that’s technical, and this is creative. Classical screenplay structure dictates there should be a beginning, middle and end. A set-up, a conflict and a resolution. There’s got to be a happy ending. You shouldn’t make dialogue scenes too long. Every line has to advance the plot.
This may help new writers get their first screenplay down, but is basically Hollywood bullshit — impeding creativity. If Fellini or Woody Allen followed these rules, there would be no Fellini or Woody Allen. Take such feedback with a fistful of salt.
Isolated Value Judgements
When GTA V — the highest-earning entertainment product of all time — came out, Gamespot dropped a review marking it down for being “profoundly misogynistic”. What’s interesting is that nobody else did. It’s a masterpiece of story and game design, that happens to have three male main characters, and many silly satirical female ones (as well as males by the way).
The reviewer gave a personal value judgement, and judged the work’s quality based on it. This isn’t fair. The rule of thumb is simple — if many people notice your work is sexist, racist, gratuitously violent or something else, then it might be. If one person does, I’d say don’t give a shit.
Oddball Feedback
This might sit under the value judgements, but not necessarily. One of my shorts, Cloud Nine, is about a man who’s stalked by a mysterious girl in red during a bad date. I must’ve shown it to over 50 people and almost all of them got what I wanted – that it’s about romantic loss.
One person thought it was about drug use. Not good, nor bad, but not enough to make me review the script and see if I implied something I didn’t want to. There’ll always be one-off comments — it’s important to know when to give a shit. And, unless they hit the above criteria, the answer is no.
When to maybe give a shit
An honourable mention. Someone might read all, or most, of your work and want to give some high-level feedback about you as a writer. This might relate to:
- Diversification: You might find yourself writing the same characters, stories and genre — and someone calls you out on it.
- Writing men or women: Maybe your characters of the opposite gender are less developed or generally weak. A cause for concern.
- Medium: Is the screen the right medium for you? A person may ask why you don’t try novels, short stories or journalism, for example.
- Writing about yourself: You need to use your life experience in your writing, that’s where the emotion and authenticity comes from. But a common writers’ mistake is to believe that their lives are interesting. A balance of fiction and autobiography is necessary, and people may tell you if it’s not good enough.
You should look out for these regardless of whether someone tells you to. But if someone does, think carefully about its credibility and do what you have to.
Feedback’s everything
That’s why you have to know what to do with it — and how to organize it. Life’s too short to be pushed off-track by low-value feedback.
Let me know in the comments if you think I missed anything.
I’ll give a shit, promise.
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