Getting Notes – Ten Things to Consider

I got an email this morning from one of my students who just received a pile of notes on her work-in-progress and was feeling overwhelmed and unsure on how to proceed.

Typically, I had some thoughts. Here they are below.

Getting notes on your work is a necessary aspect of the process for virtually every writer.

This is a critical moment. Here are 10 things to consider:

1. Consider the source. Do you trust them? Do you value their opinion? Be honest with yourself. Are you seeking validation or notes? There is nothing wrong with seeking validation. Tell them up front. “You’re the first to read this. I’m feeling vulnerable, this is a work in progress, I need you to be supportive. Tell me what you like. Tell me what is working.” And if they can’t do that for some reason, or if they start to veer away from your request, gently remove yourself. If you want notes, be specific about what you want addressed — especially if they are an early reader.
2. Are they curious about what you’re trying to express? Are they asking questions or simply being prescriptive? Our first readers need to be curious.
3. Do they get it? Do they understand the story you are telling, do they get the voice, the rhythm, the pacing, the humor, the protagonist’s dilemma? Sometimes your reader is curious, but the material might make them uncomfortable. Sometimes it is just not their cup of tea. How do you discern whether or not it is your work that isn’t working, or the reader? . . .
4.  . . . by remembering that notes are a conversation.
5. Always ask “Why?” Why are you suggesting this? Why do you think this character isn’t working?
6. Are their notes process-oriented, or are they interested in a result, like making the work more “saleable,” “acceptable,” “politically correct,” or “less dark”? Don’t neuter the aliveness of your first draft to follow a trend.
7. What is going on for you inside? Are you listening to your inner voice? Does your “spidey-sense” tell you this is a safe person? Being uncomfortable is not necessarily a sign that the notes are unhelpful, in fact, getting notes is almost always uncomfortable. But feeling unsafe is a sign that something is amiss.
8. Remember that you’re creating art. There are no rules. There are no absolutes. This is just their opinion. Getting notes is humbling. Giving notes should also be humbling.
9. Don’t send your work to an agent until the work is ready. Your first readers should be friends and fellow writers, not the people who are in the business of selling your work. But the obverse. Don’t get too precious. Don’t hold onto it forever. At some point you must send out your work. Remember, your sole purpose is to create a body of work.
10. Finally, never abdicate authority over your work. This is your baby, your work in progress. I have seen too many brilliant wildly messy first drafts that become stillborn at the altar of one’s self-doubt. The goal is not to write a bestseller, or even to receive a big fat publishing contract. The goal is for your words to vibrate with life. When you step into your true power, you discover that while you are the guardian of your work, it doesn’t actually belong to you – and you develop a necessary creative detachment, a second skin that keeps you sensitive to your environment while inured from reckless criticism so your baby can grow up into a hot-tempered teenager and finally a fully realized grownup that somehow, miraculously without too much effort, moves out of the attic and finds its own place on the shelf of our vast global library.

By the way, I’ve broken every one of these rules. Everything is a lesson. Everything that happens to us is useable in our work. You are a magnificent channel for the truth. Keep trusting yourself.

Learn more about marrying the wildness of your imagination to the rigor of structure in The 90-Day Novel, The 90-Day Memoir, or The 90-Day Screenplay workshops.