How to Ask for and Give Useful Feedback

Sometimes asking for feedback can feel like casting a fishing line into an ocean; while you’d want a big fish in the best case scenario, often you end up with minnows, seaweed, or even an old boot. It takes a lot of bravery to ask for feedback in the first place, and it can be really disappointing when you don’t get what you’re looking for.

On the other hand, giving feedback can be hard for some people too. When someone just asks for ‘general feedback’, they’re more likely to get biased answers based on the viewer’s likes or dislikes. While this can be useful in some cases, if someone dislikes or doesn’t read fantasy or romance, they might not give a romantic fantasy story useful feedback about the actual genre or tropes.

This article aims to give you the most effective ‘bait’ for your hook when it comes to asking for advice, and to equip you with skills to give kind and supportive feedback to other creatives. While I’m writing from a writer and reader’s perspective, you can theoretically use this advice for any sort of feedback in your life, creative or otherwise!

How to Ask for Advice

The best way to get useful feedback is to be highly specific with what you’re asking for. This requires you to really sit down and think about what your writing or creation needs which can be a bit hard, especially when there’s something off that you can’t quite place. But wait a second; “something off that you can’t quite place” is actually something specific! 

Here are some examples of highly specific feedback requests:

• “Do my characters properly show off the dynamic I intended?”
• “Is my prose descriptive enough of the environment?"
• “Can you help me figure out what feels ‘off’ about the fourth paragraph?”
• “Do you understand my worldbuilding with what I’ve shared in this chapter?”

Another tip is to go into the experience with positive intentions. Getting feedback can be scary, so I want you to try and engage the person giving feedback with genuine questions to understand their thoughts and where they’re coming from. Properly given critique can change your perspective and improve your work; but it’s important to remember that feedback is just feedback. You’re the creator, and you don’t need to change your work unless you agree with the feedback. 

How to Give Feedback

Much like asking for feedback, being specific with what you choose to share is important. If someone is asking for your general thoughts and feedback, your personal thoughts are fine to share! But when someone asks for more specific and direct feedback, it’s important to ask yourself if the advice you’re giving is something that will genuinely help them rather than something you’d personally want them to do. Personal bias can muddy up your otherwise useful advice.

It’s also important to be gentle and approach feedback constructively. You want to frame it as improving what’s already there, rather than fixing something that’s wrong. A lot of young and new creators are anxious about feedback, so providing them with a safe space to discuss their work is important.

Here are some examples of how you can gently phrase your feedback:

• “I really like how you wrote this section, and I think you can improve it by…”
• “I agree that the section you pointed out feels a bit strange. I’ve got a few ideas for what you can try…”
• “I noticed a way you can instantly make your writing even better…” (this one is useful for suggesting paragraph breaks to newer writers)

A Community for Advice and Feedback

Not to brag, but one of the biggest communities on Unvale right now is the Writing-Advice community, created by me! This blog was originally written for that community, and I’ve expanded it for everyone on the site here. Everyone in the community has been fantastic and so helpful, so I’d like to shout out our first 1,000 members! Hi!

If asking for or giving advice isn’t your style but you still want to get your work out there, the Writing-Share community is small but mighty. You’re welcome to post to your heart’s content there; both your own work, and the writing of other folks on Unvale you’re a fan of!