Feedback on Feedback

Mar 24 2008

The Kingstowne Library Writers' Peer Review group stands out for the amount and depth of feedback each writer receives in a single session.  While most writers' groups meeting in Fairfax County Public Library locations use a show up/ read/ hear feedback pattern, the Peer Review group requests that each person submit the work early, providing roughly 10 days for readers to read, make notes, and read again.

 

Reviewers have come back with substantial suggestions, deleting whole paragraphs, swapping chapter order, or even researching a detail to help the author improve the story.  While some of these thoughts may occur while listening to the author read the story aloud, they are more likely to be voiced in the Peer Review setting. 

 

Why?  Peer review participants have more time to read and reflect on a work.  They are encouraged to write down their impressions and suggestions, which improves the odds of even the smallest suggestion making its way to the writer's feedback.  Since their thoughts are organized in advance, the reviewers make more efficient use of the allotted feedback time, allowing extra time for the exchange of ideas or group brainstorming to solve a particular literary problem.  And the seriousness of the members--each of whom can have up to 25 double-spaced pages up for review each month--means reviewers know they truly want helpful feedback, not just a few suggestions sandwiched between layers of praise.  The elements combine one evening a month to provide the kind of feedback some people would pay to receive. 

 

But even feedback needs feedback.

 

People attend the Kingstowne Library Peer Review sessions in hopes of obtaining meaningful suggestions and making progress toward publication.  If they don't feel they are getting that, they lose interest and leave, or worse, they dial down their own feedback while continuing to participate in the group.  With that in mind, it is important for the group members to become aware of their own feedback styles and evaluate what helps them--and what hurts them--create better stories. 

 

In March, the Peer Review group will include a feedback mechanism intended to help members pinpoint what helps and hurts and how they can assist each other better. 

 

Each March the group ties “something new” such as varying the meeting format.  It helps keep things fresh, and it encourages the group to change when improvements can be made.