When you get a lot of feedback at once...

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SciSarahTops

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I am lucky enough to have had some extremely useful beta feedback (2 from here on AW another from an email buddy) and some amazing plot advice from a clever helpful person.. all at once.

I'm excited and overwhelmed but mostly the latter. How do I shuffle it all out into the manuscript without loosing the gold? Slow and systematically ticking off the points I believe have value? Go through the whole manuscript? Jump around tackling the major bits first? Sit here typing posts on AW and feeling like I'm not really good enough?

Advice and experiences welcome.

-S
 

Maryn

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I'd separate this great advice into different levels. Highest is structural. Does the plot need to change, or the order or method of the telling, or who your antagonist is and why? Big Picture changes like that? Mull over the suggestions, taking your time, before you change the whole story. (And of course, change a copy, not your original.)

One level lower, writing suggestions. Need to elaborate more on setting, be more descriptive in the battle scene, make the reader feel the discomforts of camping in winter, explain the motive of the hero more clearly? Is your pacing off? That will involve a good bit of revision and rewrite, so don't do it until the major structure is in place.

Lowest level, the nit-picky stuff about the writing itself. Do you re-use favorite words and phrases too often? Do you love a good dangling modifier? Does your sentence structure not vary enough? Do your choreograph your character's body through every scene? Does she look, smile, and nod way too much? These are all local fixes, literally able to be tackled one sentence at a time, so you'd do such things last.

Maryn, who also washes walls starting at the top
 

buz

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Everything Maryn said.

I just wanted to add, give yourself time. For me, it takes a while to wrap my head around things, gnaw on solutions, etc. Take one thing at a time, and don't worry if the process feels messy. It can be, but you can keep moving through it. :)
 

tiddlywinks

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Ah poop. Just had my first response eaten when I hit the wrong button. >.<
*sigh*

Ditto what Maryn said. Personally, I also find it useful to work in a copy of my manuscript and note chapter by chapter (or in a OneNote file, whatever works for you), the common high level things my betas all agreed on. Those are first priority, as they'll probably require the most revision, and it's safe to say if everyone's pinging me on it, it's an issue. How I address it is the tricksey part...

Then, I make note of the things that individuals pinged me on or where there was difference of opinion. I'll usually chew on those for a couple days and listen to my gut. I may also ping some of the other betas if they didn't make a comment on that issue, just to see what they think. Sometimes I'll get a "oh yeah, I think I noticed that too, but not enough to say something?" Or they will be like "I will CUT YOU if you change that" and then you can start to suss out if it's an individual reader preference issue. :greenie Good times.

It may be tempting to go after the sentence level stuff, but resist! You should address the high level structural issues because a lot of those sentence level things will go the way of the Dodo in that process. But do make a "GOSH DARN IT" list with your, um, lovely little idiosyncrasies, aka what I like to call my "BAD WINKS HABITS" list that I'll use when ready for the polishing round later.

Good luck! You've got this.
 

Carrie in PA

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I read through feedback first as just a read-through to get a feel for it. As in, is this valuable overall? Then I'll let it sit for a few days and then go back and examine each point with my document open. If I feel it's something I need to address, I'll make a comment in my own document. (size of the issue is irrelevant at this point - it's as simple as "do I need to address this")

I automatically give more weight to things that multiple people mention. In my newest one, 3 of my betas immediately pointed out that I didn't have enough physical description for my characters, so that's something I'll address right away.

Eventually, I have all the feedback merged into my main document. Then I'll go in and make changes as needed.

Take every bit of feedback with a grain of salt, and don't weigh their opinions more heavily than your own. And TRY not to get discouraged. I know, getting a document back with a zillion comments about changes can be disheartening.
 

SciSarahTops

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Wow, thank you, incredibly useful suggestions. You lovely, clever people.

I feel excited again about the work (rather than a -god-this-is-endless- feeling) and don't to lose the momentum of that feeling. But I also see the value in letting everything move together in my head and settling out before I rip, shred and pad.

I actually had a verbal conversation about the work with someone who cared and enjoyed talking about it and it was a revelation. In 4 years I have never talked the thing through. Never articulated what I was trying to achieve. It feels almost religious to have done it!
 

Maryn

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Fresh enthusiasm for the win!
 
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