Story Feedback Thoughts

The first article I read was Silence the Critical Voices in Your Head by Sabina Nawaz. I thought it was really interesting when it said to focus on positive feedback, as I had never heard that advice before. It makes sense, after all you should know what you're doing right as well as what you are doing wrong, but you never hear that. Almost all feedback in class assignments is negative feedback, and I think we internalize that as the only way we can improve, hence why focusing on positive feedback is harder. This article made me realize that positive feedback can be more helpful sometimes than negative feedback because it helps you have more self-confidence moving forward.

The second article was Seven Ways to Crush Self-Doubt in Creative Work by John Spencer. This was a fun read because many of the tips listed were ones I have found useful in my hobby writing. For instance, he said it was useful for him to have a group he could trust and be vulnerable in front of to share his art with, and I have that with my writing. As I have said I write for myself, but I also share my stories with my partner. They are an artist, and I have recently gotten them interested in writing as well so now we can both improve from each other. Fun fact: my profile picture is a drawing of a raven that my partner made for me that I also recently got tattooed on my hip. When I looked at my profile the picture looked blurry though so I am not sure about the quality, so I will provide it here in hopes that you can better appreciate the detail.

(Image Information: personal drawing of a raven; photo from January 2021)

Look at that. It is clearly a raven and not a crow (very important distinction) and the amount of detail my partner did for me on the feathers despite the fact that they hate drawing those. You can see why I had to get such a beautiful declaration of affection permanently etched on my self, but I digress.

The other thing I liked about the article and have found helpful in my own experiences, was the advice to abandon perfectionism. I have found that it is much easier to be happy with your work when you don't go into it expecting to make an exact replica of what is in your head. If you focus on that, you end up magnifying the flaws until they are all you can see. I have found this to be the case in writing, cooking, and sewing (I make costumes when the pain from overuse in my wrists subsides enough to do so). It is better to remember that no one else knows what the "perfect" version looks like, so they will just see what is there, not what "should" be there. However, if you are too scared of failure to create, there will not be anything to enjoy. A flawed reality is better than a perfect idea.

(Motivational Image from Pixabay)

-A.