Critism, Feedback, and Engagement: Pillars of Improvement

I've been thinking about World Building and Writing in general recently. Typically, I write a lot of world-building notes in the World Building Community and I write a lot of my short stories in two different communities.

1. Scholar and Scribe - Where I tend to enter stories that I think will be multipart short stories.
2. The Ink Well - In this community I tend to enter stories that I know will only be one self-contained fiction post.

Each of those writing communities are great for different reasons, Scholar and Scribe is great because in keeping with their community rules, serialised stories are allowed, and while writing for, and curating work there I have a chance to earn and distribute their duel tokens, Scholar and Scribe.

The Ink Well is a really good community I enjoy writing in for the simple reason that you can almost guarantee you'll get some readers who will give some invaluable critiques of your work, which help to improve the craft of writing. Everyone who submits a story is encouraged to read at least two pieces prior to publishing their own, and that doesn't mean giving it a like and commenting something like, "Wow, that's a cool story." They require you to really read it, and give some good feedback to the writer, typically a paragraph or two.

I think The Ink Well, for writers - especially amateurs - is amazing for this type of engagement that is encouraged. Personally, I have learned a lot due to these types of comments I've received, and even by reading other people's work I've learned some tricks... I mean, it goes without saying that reading is a great way to learn how to write, or at least hone your skills.

Most communities should follow this same idea, as I think it would be a big benefit to all content creators on Hive.

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Why Talk About Engagement and Criticism
This post was actually intended to talk about setting scenes and in general world-building elements of fiction. But, while I'm on this subject I figured I would share some thoughts on feedback.

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I recently discovered Tim Cain's YouTube Channel and I've been watching a good few of his videos.

For anyone that doesn't know that name, he is a pretty legendary figure in the games industry. He works at Obsidian Entertainment and his most recent projects are Pillars of Eternity and The Outer Worlds, he is also a founder of Troika Games. But, he has a long history going back decades, and worked on Fallout 1 plus many other titles.

Here's one of his videos I saw last night where he discusses how he writes design docs and I found it really cool. He seems to produce a lot of content, and each of his videos seems to be pretty relaxed as he just talks to the camera.

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Anyway, that was a tangent in a tangent. The thing I mentioned previously about feedback and engagement is based on something he said in this video that resonated with me.

"If you give feedback that isn't constructive, your feedback is worthless." He does mention that it's a pretty harsh statement to make, but I think he's right.

I once shared a film script with a friend - back a few years ago when I was fresh out of college and still chipping away at writing - pre-Hive, while I was still learning, to a certain extent, and making short films.

After a few weeks, I asked what he thought of it and he just scrunched up his face and said, "Ahh, I was trying to read it and your dialogue is shit." No elaboration, no ideas to improve it, he just made a blanket statement about the entire thing.

Now, to say I didn't care about what he said would be a lie. He and I would write songs together from our teens, and would usually have a lot of fun making up stupid songs, ideas, and talking in general about films, and stories. To me, he was someone I could lean on when I had an idea for something and figured he could do the same with me. But, I saw this change in him prior to this, and sure enough when he had that response it was apparent that he had 100% changed. Shortly after that due to some other stuff we fell out and haven't spoken since.

Instantly, when I heard Tim Cain saying what he said in that video I was instantly transported to my mindset back a few years ago and that encounter. For starters, I knew, and know my dialogue wasn't/ isn't shit.

At the time it kind of came out of nowhere, but looking back at it now, I think it was maybe jealousy. He always had these ideas for stories, films, songs, but nothing ever amounted to anything and he'd never deliver on even one of these ideas and I think seeing someone who was able to deliver, might have annoyed him. I'm not saying I'm great at writing, far from it, but I've consistently worked at it since studying it, and have always - especially since joining Hive - written and tried to improve myself. If I'm not writing, I'm most likely thinking about it, and if I'm doing neither, I'm listening to someone else talk about it.

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This Post Ran Away With Itself and Became A Monster
As I neared the end of this post I decided to move it from its intended destination, and publish it in the Rant, Complain, Talk community.

Originally, it was going to be a world-building post, discussing setting, and other world-building elements of fiction. But, here we are.

It's true though, I think unconstructive feedback is useless, and not just someone tearing your work apart and telling you how to improve it, but the other kind too where someone tells you that they like your work.

I've seen many comments, not just here but pretty much all over the internet, where someone says, "Cool," or "I really like this." Even being nice to someone isn't really helping.

It would be much more valuable to point out one particular part of a story, or post and go into a bit of detail about it and tell the person that they have done great with X, Y, or Z and they should lean more into that when creating any future content.

Real criticism and genuine engagement is so valuable to writers, and creators alike, and not just for someone who is writing, but for musicians, filmmakers, streamers, and painters; in any and all creative endeavor that takes time, dedication, and practice it's really important to hear the good, bad, and ugly critiques because it does two things.

1. Builds thick skin, to help ease all the incoming rejection - of which there'll be much. Not everyone is going to like you, or what you do, and if someone isn't prepared for the negativity, they might be struck with it and potentially give up.
2. It teaches humility and lets you know and understand that you're not that good... yet. However, with more work, focus, and time you will be better, and each thing you do, and everything you create will help improve yourself and learn.
3. There wasn't meant to be a third, but I thought of one. Criticism, and feedback - especially negative critiques - help you learn what you like, and discover a hidden ability; to reject other people's ideas in pursuit of your own. "Oh, I like it when people write this way because that's what my teacher said." Yeah? Well, who the hell are you, and what makes you so great?

Only true artists can reject suggestions as a way to safeguard their own voice, and at the same time, it takes a lot of reading on the subject to understand that there is no "3 Steps To Success" or a "Write-By-Numbers" manual on being an author. There are successful bad authors and unsuccessful great ones. Nobody writes the same way, has the same voice, or uses the same template, which means the whole "Learn How To Write," industry is made up. Nobody knows what the hell they're talking about, and if that's the case, then it's all a big free for all and we can all do whatever the hell we want.

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All jokes aside, I do think it's important to learn the rules, so you know how to break them... correctly. If you do something by accident, even if it's good, it's a mistake.

But, @killerwot I hear you ask, who are you what makes you so great?

Oh, me? Well, in the words of Jango Fett, "I'm just a man trying to make my way in the universe."