Make the Most of Feedback
This article is for: Beginner and Intermediate poets
Getting feedback is one of the most vital things you can do to get better at writing poetry.
Because we can never see our own poems as clearly as other people do, you need to hear feedback from other readers if you’re going to make your poems better.
You need them to tell you what’s working, what’s not working, what there’s too much of, what doesn’t make sense, what they’re still curious about, so that you know what your strengths are and what you still need to work on.
In fact, getting good feedback can take years off your learning process.
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And you can help this process move faster and smoother, by learning to receive feedback in the most effective ways.
Feedback is essential… but not always easy
OK, so feedback is good for us. Trouble is, receiving feedback isn’t always straightforward…
Feedback can be incisive, supportive, and clear—but it can also be a whole lot of other things instead!
It can be confusing. It can seem downright wrong, or disrespectful. It can make you angry, hurt, even despairing. It can be so bad that some people are scared of getting any of it, and write by themselves for decades.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. Here are my main tips for how to deal with any feedback that’s hard to take, and make the most of ALL the feedback you get, whether it’s supportive or severe.
1. Don't fight back: Listen
When someone says something in your poem isn't working, you may be tempted to defend it and explain why it darn well is working. Try not to do this!
You don't have to agree with every piece of feedback you get, but it is good practice to just acknowledge it all.
Feedback has usually been given with the respectful intention of trying to help you improve the poem, so it all deserves to be at least listened to. And the more you listen, the more you might learn.
Even feedback that seems harshly motivated may in fact be well-intentioned: some people just have difficulty expressing themselves considerately. And that doesn’t mean you can’t still glean something from their response.
Rule #1: Listen. Just listen.
2. Give it time
When you get feedback, give it a little time to sink in before you respond or start redrafting. Your first reactions will probably not be your wisest, most thoughtful ones!
Just as our own ideas for our poems need time to grow and strengthen, so do our thoughts about what feedback means.
How long should you give a piece of feedback before you act on it? Well, that's hard to say. Maybe a couple of days, maybe weeks.
Or maybe longer: I once had a student who emailed me two years after I'd finished teaching her, to say that she'd just realized a piece of my feedback was right!
Rule #2: Put in a reflective gap between getting feedback and starting to use it.
3. Ask Questions
If you’ve ever shown a poem to someone else, you’ve probably realized that what we think is clear in a poem often doesn’t actually make sense to a reader who’s not us.
That’s a big reason why we need feedback on every poem—to make sure we’re not creating confusion.
Well, the same thing applies the other way around! Sometimes the feedback we get is confusing to us. If that happens, ask for more explanation. They want to help, after all!
Rule #3: Ask for clarification
4. You don't have to agree
If, after listening, waiting, and clarifying, you still don't agree with a piece of feedback, that's OK!
It's your poem—you can do what you want with it. No-one is saying you have to change it.
Try to sift through the feedback to get, keeping the parts that are most useful, and letting go of advice that doesn't seem as relevant, insightful, or applicable.
But DON'T go back to the person who gave you the feedback and tell them they're wrong!! They were probably trying their best to help.
Rule #4: You can be selective about which parts of feedback you use. It’s up to you!
5. Be glad when you’re mad
Having said Rule #4, I’m now going to disagree with it.
Rule #5: The most annoying feedback is often the most valuable.
I’m not sure why this is, exactly, but perhaps it’s because really good feedback, like really good poetry, comes as a surprise. It’s not what we were expecting, and so acting on it requires us to change our ideas about our poem radically.
That can be annoying! You thought the poem was almost done, and now suddenly someone’s telling you to reorder it and cut the opening and write another ending and get rid of the rhyme scheme… That’s a lot of work!
But that new, extra work almost always pays off, and gives you a chance to learn something new about yourself as a poet. So do try to pay extra respect to irritating feedback—it may be just what you need!
6. Bad drafts are part of the process
Everyone writes bad drafts.
I'll say that again: Everyone writes bad drafts.
EVERYONE. Including Shakespeare. (Have you ever tried to read Timon of Athens?)
A bad draft is NORMAL. So if you get lots of feedback saying your draft isn't working, don't feel crushed: you're just being a poet.
Besides, a bad draft doesn't mean a bad poem. What matters is what you do next. If you take the best suggestions for change and improvement, you CAN turn your bad draft into a good poem. It happens all the time.
Rule #6: A bad draft is an opportunity, not a disaster. So don’t wilt!
7. It's Not Personal!
The feedback on your poem is feedback on your poem.
It's not feedback on you.
It's not feedback on your ability as a poet.
It’s not a judgement on your life, talents, future, loveability, or worth.
It's just about this one piece of writing you did.
If the feedback says you did well—great! Well done! If the feedback says you didn't do so well, you are still a great person—and you can learn to make a better poem another time.
Rule #7: Don’t take it personally: The feedback is about the poem, not you.
8. Redrafting Comes in Different Sizes
Lastly, remember that you can use feedback and learn from it in different ways:
You might do a bit of tinkering but keep your draft much the same as it was.
You might keep parts of the poem, but change others substantially.
You might rewrite the entire poem, rethinking your approach completely.
You might decide to abandon that poem, but to make use of the feedback in the next pieces you start.
Don't feel you have to do it one way!
Rule #8: There’s always more than one way to redraft.
Next steps
Next time you get feedback on a poem, try using some or all of these “Rules.”
In particular, see if you can find one new way to use the feedback—one way you would not have done it before.
