Feedback on Your Writing Hurts Bad – But Here’s How You Can Change That
Why you need to stand by your work and understand that most times feedback is a tool not a judgement.
You’ve just sent your writing task to your manager. You’re excited and think “I’m sure he’s gonna’ love it! That surprising intro and the relatable story I created throughout the entire piece…the expressions I used…What’s not to like?”
The moment of truth comes. Your manager finished reading your task and he has some feedback. You open the doc and it’s full of red strikethroughs!
You’re thinking “This must be a mistake. I don’t think he understood what I did here. I created the best story around the requested topic. It was awesome. How dare he suggest I delete those exact phrases that took me so long to create?”
The overall conclusion is that he wants something simple and straightforward. But you can’t even accept the idea of “simple”. This topic is so interesting it deserves more than simple words. This topic needs some exciting foreplay before going straight into action. Or maybe you’re just old-fashioned?
When Reality (and Red Ink) Sets In
You need some time to digest this. You’re definitely not ready to give up your “masterpiece” and rewrite something “simple”. What does simple mean anyway?
You decide to let it go for now and get back to the rewrite the next day. Maybe you’ll see things in a new light.
And the new light shows you this: you still think you’re right and your manager is wrong for not appreciating your writing style and interesting, unique angle. Yet, you start to realize that maybe regarding some specific parts, he did have a point.
Your intro was a bit too long, you went a bit too far when describing the benefits, and maybe you were beating around the bush in the conclusion.
When to Defend Your Writing
Sometimes, though, suggested edits on your writing piece can be:
confusing:
“You can try to be more creative in this part, but don’t go too wild!”
rude
“This sounds lame!” or “This has no personality!”
inaccurate (allow me to share some detailed examples here)
I worked with an editor who knew less about a software product than I did (I knew the technical details of that product about 80% after writing about it on and on for 3 years in a row).
Get this: she would edit my writing with factually incorrect details.
I worked with a manager who always tried to mimic “the know-it-all all” attitude but she would barely do basic research. There were times when she would leave suggestions like “Are you sure this is a thing? I’ve never heard of it.” I had to provide her screenshots with the SERP, Google Trends, and other resources to prove I didn’t make things up.
My bad for thinking my manager would actually be more knowledgeable than I am.
Step In When You Know You’re Right
The point: sometimes, you need to defend your writing. Not to feed your pride or to prove a point.
For instance, my conscience doesn’t let me willingly publish inaccurate information. And I like to believe 99% of all writers apply the same principle.
Your manager or client may not understand your vision or idea on a writing topic. But you can at least calmly try to explain and argue your perspective. You might be pleasantly surprised and be allowed to write your way. If not, well…at least you tried.
Most people, including editors, don’t know how to complement negative feedback with positive feedback on your writing.
Forget the “how”! They don’t even conceive the idea of sparing 30 extra seconds to drop a simple positive remark. Something like, “You did a great job summing up this information,” or “I liked that analogy,” or even “What a strong intro—you got me hooked, let’s hope our readers will think the same.”
Try to Force the Fish Philosophy
They say never applaud a fish for swimming. Yet, the Fish philosophy says the opposite and I support it 100%.
A simple positive remark among dozens of negative ones can honestly make a writer’s day better. It’s often all the encouragement a writer needs to keep going, stay motivated, and give their best, so they can turn their writing from good to great.
But since expecting that kind of feedback might feel like asking for a miracle, here’s a workaround: proactively invite positive feedback. The next time the critique pile feels endless—delete this, rewrite that—pause, take a deep breath, and tell your manager or client something like:
“I understand that I need to do many revisions and have a lot of feedback to implement. I’ll do my best to learn from it. But is there any part of the draft you liked or think just needs minor tweaks? Knowing what works apart from what doesn’t would really help me refine my approach going forward.”
Don’t take it as a begging-for-compliments thing. Take it as a small effort that helps you improve your craft. It also shows your manager or client that you care deeply about doing a great job and are genuinely committed to learning and growing. Everybody wins!
Hope this helps & keep believing in yourself and your writing!
Dana is a freelance writer from Romania. She has been writing for various industries, from blockchain and online privacy to fitness and wellness. She enjoys deep dives in research & always does her best to show empathy in her writing.
Thanks so much for your thoughts Jorgen! The thing with feedback is always tricky, including when forcing positive feedback if you don't receive it. Regardless of how nicely you may communicate, some people might get it wrong, or think you're naive or crazy. But I believe it's worth trying, especially if you get to a point when you feel very frustrated.
These are good advice to keep, when criticism seems overwhelming. And it does for all professional writers, at times. Btw., positive criticism and telling a fish how nicely it is swimming is what I would see as a normal, polite behaviour. As I have asked so often – aren't we supposed to be polite at work?
Well, when managerial power goes in, politeness goes out, quite often.
Another aspect: lack of criticism can be almost worse than the wrong and too much. Have you ever tried writing a big document, full of details, then asking for feedback – because you know that there must be several details that you got wrong or, at least, have described in ways that aren't the typical ones for that business or product – but all you get back is "it looks good", or perhaps nothing at all.
This lack of quality control by the next level can be really problematic, as it is translatable to lack of support, lack of cooperation. Someone will this way allow for errors to slip through until a later point in the process, where it will then always fall back on you, despite that you tried to get some comments, wanted to take that round of additional improvements.
Feedback is indeed a two-edged sword. We need it to get forward, and we need it to be done with care – and then we also "don't need it", when it is somehow wrong, often solely negatively phrased. And there, your suggestion to ask for the good parts is actually worth gold: It's an invitation to start a dialogue, and dialogue is always the best way forward in a collaboration.