How I Write a Chapter-by-Chapter Document

Hi everyone! As most of you probably know, I work as a freelance editor. One type of editing I do is content (or developmental) editing. It's an edit that focuses on what the story is, and how the story itself can be made stronger--this means focusing on things like worldbuilding, characters, plot, structure, theme, etc. (In contrast, a line edit focuses on the way the story is told on a line-by-line level.)

Any content edit will include what's called an editorial or critique letter, which is what it sounds like. It's a feedback letter explaining the strengths and weaknesses of the story with some ideas of how to improve it. I already did a post on how I, personally, approach critique letters. 

And today I wanted to talk about another document I started adding to my content edits a few years ago. I call it a "chapter-by-chapter document" (yeah, I know, really clever name 😉). See, after a couple of years of freelancing, I started to feel like, for a lot of stories, a critique letter wasn't deep enough or specific enough.

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The Real Reason You NEED to Give Positive Feedback!

A few weeks ago, I got in contact with a writer who's novel is getting published. I had the pleasure of editing the manuscript last year. It didn't need much help--it was already really good and really polished by the time it got to me. But recently she thanked me for my feedback, and ensured it had been extremely helpful to her. One of the things she said was that she appreciated that I gave positive feedback.

Some people are under the misconception that positive feedback is only there to stroke the writer's self-esteem and ego. That's completely wrong. I admit that in some situations it's appropriate to only focus on what needs to be fixed--in my opinion, this is only when the story is literally being edited so it can be published or when the writer has already gotten positive feedback as to what is working. But for other parts of the process, positive feedback should not be skipped!

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Feeding Us Criticism

If anyone is serious about anything in the arts, she's going to get criticized. And she should. The truth is, artists need criticism. Otherwise we can't fully hone our skills. We need people to feed it to us.

Some people say that "writers get a thick skin." I'm not sure I believe that. With the arts--whether it's writing, animation, painting, or dance--we also need to keep ourselves vulnerable, because art is all about opening up to others. Often the best art is vulnerable, in that it lets others connect with the artist's mind and soul.

So artists need two things: they need criticism and they need to be vulnerable. This can lead to hurt feelings. But, generally speaking, those feelings are the artist's responsibility, not the critic's. The artist needs to learn to deal with them, because he will feel them over and over again throughout his career. He needs to learn to take criticism.

So when we ask for feedback, give it to us. People think they might help by not telling us what they don't like, but in long-run, they're hurting. They're hurting our art and our personal growth.

We need critics who aren't afraid of hurting our feelings. We need critics who are okay when our feelings are hurt.

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