I met up with my friend on Discord last night. He’s starting his writing journey, so we spent some time reviewing a couple scenes he wrote through Google Docs.
As we were reviewing chunks of his work, I came to realize how far along my journey I am, yet also how much I still have to learn. Still, it was a pleasure to help guide someone along the paths I’ve traveled so far in my writing wanderlust.
One of the challenges when collaborating and offering feedback is the desire to “do it your way”. The goal shouldn’t be to rewrite something, but to offer suggestions. Approach advice-giving with a posture of humility. Remind yourself that you don’t know everything, and everyone doesn’t need to write the way you write.
When receiving feedback, it’s also important to practice humility. Listen, ask questions, explain why you approached scripting something the way you did. Take note of the advice. You don’t have to follow it though, but give their words some thought to see if there’s value in what they said, or if there’s a partial solution that might work, where you get across your idea in a different way that solves the problem your CP is pointing out.
That said, being humble can be a challenge at times, especially when you’re talking about creative work If need be, take a break for a bit before continuing. Or agree to disagree on something and move on. A good CP shouldn’t be attacking your work or you. They should be guiding you to consider alternatives and offer suggestions for improvement.
This was my first time working with a CP, and I found it valuable. I reviewed this writer’s work, and we’ve scheduled time next month for him to review my work. We’re working in different genres, so I may need to eventually find a CP who writes in my current genre to add to my team. But at this stage, I will value the advice offered from well-meaning people.