Lessons From The Field: Part 1
Feedback Is Everything
By Danny Hankner
Paintball consumed a decade of my life. From my early teens into my 20s, you could find me blasting my friends in the woods, crawling over debris behind the junkyard, tinkering and modding the various guns I owned, and chatting with people all over the country on various paintball forums. I ate it, breathed it, slept it. And even if most of my gear is gone now, and what few markers I have are collecting dust on my office wall, paintball will forever hold a special place in my heart.
A lot has changed in the nearly two decades that I’ve been away. New competitors have entered the market, notably Airsoft, which offers several benefits that paintball lacks. The ammo is cheaper, less painful, and the guns – instead of the flashy colors and intricate moldings – are modeled after the real deal. Pretty cool.
So a few years ago, I hosted a bachelor party for a good friend of mine, and I decided we should all try our hand at this new-fangled Airsoft at an indoor arena. I hadn’t stepped foot on a paintball field in probably 15 years, and - this being its closest cousin – I was pretty jazzed up.
It was a walk-on night, so our small group joined a dozen or two other locals for a couple hours of play. Though we indeed had a good time, at the end, I was a little let down. Something about Airsoft just didn’t do it for me like paintball did. Was I just getting older? Was I losing the ability to just have fun?
Both of those may be true, but it was something else that I believe sucked some of the fun out of the game for me. You see, Airsoft lacked a critical component that paintball had in spades.
Feedback.
What do I mean by that? In paintball, there’s an absolute thrill in staring down a barrel, squeezing the trigger, and watching that little paint-filled orb sail across the sky at 300 feet per second, and then SPLAT all over the enemy’s mask. Or arm. Or chest. Or whatever. Cause and effect. Behold, the fruit of your labor.
But in Airsoft? Unless your gun is running tracer rounds, the pellets are so small that you can’t see them! And since your mask inhibits you from a true sight line down the barrel, you're shooting blind. Only if the other guy is being honest – sticking a hand (or his gun) up in the air - do you even register if you made a hit! And that’s a second or two after, not immediately. And that’s assuming it was your shot and not somebody else’s.
How undramatic.
I haven’t been back since.
And the reason why I never returned to the Airsoft field is the same reason why so many writers never return to the blank page: because feedback is everything. And what do I mean by that? Take a look at this trauma loop:
If nobody reads your work, how will you know what to fix?
If you don’t know what to fix, how will your writing improve?
If your writing doesn’t improve, who will want to read it?
If nobody reads it, why would you keep writing?
It’s like a snake eating its own tail, or like what Fat Bastard once said, “I eat because I’m depressed, and I’m depressed because I eat. It’s a vicious cycle.”
Feedback – or as we often call it, critique – really is everything, and it serves two primary functions. The first is to make your story better. Our stories become our beloved children, and like any doting parent, we are blind to many of their faults. Bad grammar, switching perspectives, wooden dialogue, plot incoherencies, and on and on and on. Our stories are loaded with them, and it takes a sharp eye (and by default, as the creator, yours is blunted) to spot them.
The second function of critique is to make you better. Once you’ve been made aware of your faults, you’ll have an easier time spotting them in the future. The more your writing gets critiqued, the better writer you become. Before you know it, that trauma loop of bad writing becomes inverted, and if your reputation as a skilled writer precedes you, people will pay good money to read your work!
Aside from the skill-building that feedback provides, it also comes with a few perks. First, people are actually reading your writing, and even if it can be a little painful, your words are being consumed. That’s a win! Second, critiquers will not only pinpoint your weaknesses, but your strengths as well! Those little cherries add up, bolster your confidence, and help you carry on in your writing endeavors.
Don’t believe me? Then try it!
But how? You ask. How do I get my writing critiqued?
You may be tempted to seek the confidence of a close friend, spouse, or family member, and that’s fine – at least for getting your toes wet – but that wouldn’t be my recommendation. Family and friends will almost always wade in with kid gloves. Most of them are not writers and don’t understand what you want or (more importantly) need, and even if they have the ability to critique properly, their relationship with you will get in the way because they don’t want to hurt your feelings. Search your heart, Luke, you know it to be true.
And your feelings – your ego – must get a little roughed up. That’s part of the process we call change. It’s uncomfortable, I know, but it is the way forward. And your friends and family are seldom cut out for this.
So where, then, shall you look?
This, dear reader, is where I’ve made it easy for you. You’re reading this because you are a card-carrying Member of Story Unlikely. And all Writer Level Members have access to our online writing community where writers can talk, joke, complain, make friends, ask questions, and yes, critique one another’s work! So, if you haven’t already,
get started today!
Remember, we don’t write stories simply for them to languish in the dark. We write stories so that others will consume them. Why delay? Better writing and better stories await you on this journey, and the first step is to simply admit the truth.
That feedback is everything.
*Author's note to experienced writers:
For some, this article may seem elementary. First, I can tell you with full confidence that the necessity of critique is lost on so many writers. I know this not only because of the high volume of poorly written submissions we receive, but also because only a fraction of our paying members are signed up and utilizing the absolute wealth that is our
community message board – what a waste! Furthermore, for those who are indeed experienced writers, many have become apathetic to the need for critique.
I’ve come so far, they think. And I know this because I’ve been there – guilty as charged!
This story is polished – at this point in my writing journey, critiques just aren’t as useful as they once were.
First, that’s only true with poor critiquers (and I don’t have time to get into that here – perhaps in part two). Second, that’s simply not true. Yes, we get better, and we improve. But we never arrive. Blind spots forever remain, and we desperately need fresh eyes to realign us (and sometimes, bring our heads back down to earth). Think of this: how many times have you read authors who, after success, became “too big to edit”, and their work post success becomes sloppy and not worth the time? I’ve lost count, and they’ve lost their way. Additionally, I’ve simply read too many problematic submissions from accomplished writers who were rejected because they stopped getting their work critiqued. Don’t let that be you. And you won’t if you remember one thing:
Feedback is everything.
