Questions for people who are giving feedback

[Enkiari]

When did you decide you are good enough to give feedback?
Is there a threshold you think a person should reach before they give feedback?
If there is, what is the threshold?

I am usually hanging around on the SH Discord server. Sometimes people come and ask for feedback and suggestions and I have tried giving what they asked.
Mostly because they need help and there is no one else there.
Sometimes I do it here as well.
But after every time I do, I start having doubts. I am confident while giving the suggestion but afterwards, I can't help but think I have given bad advice.
I feel like I have scammed them. It also doesn't help I can be very harsh.

Happy wordsmithing,
Pondering Enkiari

 

[Goodmann]

I was reading at college-level speed & comprehension in 2nd grade; won a National Merit Scholarship.I've spent a half century reading for pleasure (mostly science fiction). Mostly my comments are proofreading for grammar & homonyms (complement/compliment, discrete/discreet, ordnance/ordinance, etc.)

 

[Insomniologist]

I will personally only give feedback on grammar and general language conventions, as that is the only thing holding my dogwater writing together. I’ll never give you advice on character development, or plot points, and especially not romance. The most I’ll give on those is a “‘s pretty good!”
Basically, if you need an proofreader, I could do that; if you need a ideas guy, search elsewhere.
(I was commonly known amongst my peers as the guy who is really good at writing contrived long-winded essays but hates writing contrived long-winded essays.)

 

[Deleted member 146224]

I have experience with writing and publishing what I wrote in a professional environment, though it's mostly centered around journalism and science papers. While different from prose, I have been mentored by very knowledgeable people, who I see as role models when it comes to writing. I am also a teacher and a researcher, so finding, recognizing and fixing mistakes is my job.

I was apprehensive at first, because English isn't my native, and all the experience I have is related to a completely different language. But after thinking about it for some time, I realized that some problems with writing transcend language, hence my thread.

It does help that I've been reading a lot since hs and I never limited myself to one specific genre.

Every time I'm pointing, something that I think is a mistake, I'm trying to identify if it's just something I dont like/missunderstood/missed or if it's actually objectively wrong. I'm trying to avoid mixing my personal preferences with giving feedback, because just because something isn't targeted at me, doesn't mean it's wrong.

Another thing is that, every time I point something out I want to offer a fix. The logic here is that, if you can notice a problem and name it and then offer a fix, then you probably know what you're doing.

Lastly, I want to say that no one's feedback is going to be perfect and perfectly obejctive, thats why authors should try to get as many opinions on the matter as possible. Getting one person's thoughts will only show one perspective that can be very heavily skewed.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

When did you decide you are good enough to give feedback?
Is there a threshold you think a person should reach before they give feedback?
If there is, what is the threshold?

I am usually hanging around on the SH Discord server. Sometimes people come and ask for feedback and suggestions and I have tried giving what they asked.
Mostly because they need help and there is no one else there.
Sometimes I do it here as well.
But after every time I do, I start having doubts. I am confident while giving the suggestion but afterwards, I can't help but think I have given bad advice.
I feel like I have scammed them. It also doesn't help I can be very harsh.

Happy wordsmithing,
Pondering Enkiari

You have people asking for feedback there?

 

[AstreiaNyx]

Look, I'll admit, I'm not the biggest feedback giver myself. But here's the thing, as someone who loves getting feedback on my own writing, I gotta say: Don't hold back! Second opinions (or third, or hey, even fourth!) are welcome, especially when the writers ask for them.

 

[Deleted member 19066]

I can't help but think I have given bad advice.
I feel like I have scammed them. It also doesn't help I can be very harsh.

It doesn't matter, because the onus is on the author to digest your feedback

Consider the flip side you can give on-point advice that the author will still need to process that feedback and work out what the takeaway is and how to apply it.

And that is precisely why there is no threshold a person should reach before they give feedback.

Drunk Dave who drinks his own piss can read and give feedback.

It's up to the author to take that feedback and make conclusions on what it means to them. Of course, there is a varying amount of "meat" for the author to gnaw on. That is why simple feedback like "I like it" "It's great" "I hate it" "It's shit" are useless feedback that only serves to boost and knock the writer's ego.

 

[Plantorsomething]

When did you decide you are good enough to give feedback?
Is there a threshold you think a person should reach before they give feedback?
If there is, what is the threshold?

I am usually hanging around on the SH Discord server. Sometimes people come and ask for feedback and suggestions and I have tried giving what they asked.
Mostly because they need help and there is no one else there.
Sometimes I do it here as well.
But after every time I do, I start having doubts. I am confident while giving the suggestion but afterwards, I can't help but think I have given bad advice.
I feel like I have scammed them. It also doesn't help I can be very harsh.

Happy wordsmithing,
Pondering Enkiari

Most of the stuff I say is stuff I learned from others who are more credible