Consuming & Processing Feedback: Story Savvy Self-Editing Episode 51

Very importantly, I recommend that people refresh the discussion in Episode 5: Your Non-Negotiables along with this episode! It is the single biggest tool you can use to make this late-stage part of the self-editing process so much easier for yourself.

And I want to take a moment to name some line editors, copy editors, and proofreaders you might consider for once you are ready to move on to that step beyond beta readers or a developmental editor, like me:
Isla Elrick: https://editingbyisla.carrd.co/

Alex Moyer of Alchemy Edit: https://www.alchemyedit.com/

Betsy Judkins of Maine Woods Editing: https://www.mainewoodsediting.com/

Laura Fortier: https://www.laurafortier.com/editing

Jeanne De Vita of Book Genie: https://www.book-genie.com/copyediting

In a strange twist of events, the editor I mentioned by name when recording the podcast episode had, unbenounced to me, shuttered their editing business before the episode's release date, so I apologize for any confusion there.

Just as a reminder, I recommend not using the same outside reader for more than one layer of outside critique. So, don’t use the same person for developmental and line edits, or beta reading and copy edits. You want to get the highest number of FRESH eyes as you can on your book through the pre-publishing process.

Happy editing!

Episode 51 Overview:

Consuming & Processing Feedback

"How can I better handle receiving and reading feedback on my manuscript, processing it, and applying the helpful parts in productive ways?"

This episode of the Story Savvy Series helps you master the writer mindset during edits and confidently begin turning feedback into edits that strengthen your story. Learn how to organize critique notes, manage emotional responses, and apply essential feedback implementation tips without getting overwhelmed. Whether you're preparing for editorial review, navigating editing after beta feedback, or tackling big self-revisions, this episode prepares you to approach feedback with a clear mind and grounded focus.

Join developmental editor Rebecca Hartwell [hartboundediting.com] and aspiring middle grade fantasy author Agnes Wolfe [agneswolfeauthor.com] as they walk through the tools, habits, and questions to ask yourself when feedback arrives. From reviewing notes with a calmer perspective to choosing which edits to implement first, this discussion helps you apply your non-negotiables, streamline changes, and prepare your manuscript for what comes next in your publishing journey.

In this Episode: 

• How to emotionally prepare for feedback
• Smart ways to chase missing critiques
• What to do with harsh feedback
• How to apply feedback without overwhelm
• Next steps after self-editing is complete

Resources:

• Hart Bound Developmental Editing
• Agnes Wolfe - agneswolfeauthor.com
• Dragonheart Academy - Dragonheartacademy.com

See you next week for episode 52: Packaging & Marketing Tweaks!

Episode 51 Transcript:

Consuming & Processing Feedback

Rebecca Hartwell: Hello and welcome to the Hart Bound Editing Podcast. This is episode 51 of the weekly Story Savvy series, where we tackle the 52 biggest self-editing topics and tips to help you make your good story great as an aspiring author asks me, a developmental editor, all of the questions that you have wanted to. We have covered almost everything in this series so far, including last week's episode on how to best spend your time while you are waiting to hear back from editors or feedback readers. Today, we are going to talk about what to do when they are done. By the end of this episode, you will hopefully be equipped to handle this often emotional and challenging part of self-editing calmly and productively. Joining me to ask all of the questions is my friend and co-host, Agnes Wolf. Welcome.

Agnes Wolfe: Hi, I'm an aspiring fantasy author who hopes to release her first middle grade fantasy later next year, and also host and founder of Authors Alcove. I’m here today to tackle some best practices and supportive advice in receiving processing and implementing outside feedback on our manuscripts. So, I just want to take a moment. This is our second-to-last episode. Cannot believe we're already here. So next episode will be our very last one. Crazy. We've done this for an entire year now. So, let's get started. Where do we want to start with this topic? What should we expect from the exact moment a development editor like yourself, a beta reader like myself, or yourself, or whoever else sends us their feedback on our writing?

Rebecca: So, as a bit of a generalization, and this isn't going to be for everyone, but I think that for most people, you should expect it to suck. No matter how emotionally or mentally prepared you are for it, or think you are for it, getting that feedback from an outside source is almost always going to be difficult in some way or another. So, what I suggest you expect is, first of all, punctuality. So, if you know, hey, I gave my beta readers a deadline of, let's say, February 10th, then be nice to yourself on February 10th. And brace yourself enough that it will be helpful, but not so much that you're stressing over something that isn't actually that big of a deal. And just know what you're going to get into so that it doesn't blindside you. If you have lived a life, or had hobbies, or had careers where feedback of similar styles has been a regular occurrence that you've gotten used to, you’re likely better prepared than many, but I think that a lot of folks, and particularly writers that I've spoken to, that I've worked with, There is always going to be some level of… okay, did they hate it? Are they going to hate it? I don't like hearing negative or constructive things about my book! So preparing yourself for that moment can really make a difference. And that's really the only thing that I can say for what to expect in the very moment of getting that email, or that Zoom call, or whatever your arrangement is with those feedback readers.

Agnes: I know it's kind of funny, but, I actually felt like when I got your feedback, that it was confirmation that I was on the right track, because a lot of what you had to say were criticisms—I was like, okay, I need to change this, I need to change that—but, you know, I did send it off at a pretty early stage, really, so that was part of it, but it was actually very confirmation, like, okay, I think I know story structure better than I think I do. I know my faults, I know where I'm lacking, and some of the things I wasn't sure on, and I was like, okay, I'm not sure I really should do this, like having Novak as a perspective, as a point of view character. And you…

Rebecca: I think that it's pretty common that if you get feedback a little bit earlier in the process, you are going to be more receptive to it. But also, just your attitude there was great, and I think that having that attitude is going to be very, very helpful to you, and I'm glad. I do put effort into trying to be as encouraging as I am helpful, so that's great to hear on all fronts.

Agnes: Yeah, that is one of the things I do have to say about her, as opposed to some others, because I've heard of Horror stories of people just feeling like they are being attacked. I did not feel attacked. Like, whenever she did say things that were kind of like, “Ummmm, this needs to change,” she said it in such a nice way that made me feel good.

Rebecca: Good.

[both laugh]

Agnes: And I think that's, you know, that vibe thing that we talked about, finding a development editor, I think that's part of it. But anyway, so when we get that feedback, what if we don't hear back from someone, or I guess, what if we don't hear back from someone by the deadline that we had agreed upon?

Rebecca: Essentially, you can bug them a couple of times, and I suggest doing so professionally. So don't come at it like an attack, don't come at it like you've been wronged. But it is absolutely acceptable to send a couple, so two, three at a stretch, emails, let's say one the day after the deadline was missed, and maybe one a week or two later. That just says, “hey, we had this arrangement, I'm not sure what's going on, I would love an update to see where you are, if you can get feedback to me later, I would love to know what your new expectation for when that might be is.” That's specifically for beta readers, for a developmental edit, if you're paying them, it should be in the contract, you should have a contract, and if that contract gets broken, pursue it. they're not your friends, essentially. You are paying them, and as the paid professional, it is our job to meet deadlines. It is our job to uphold the promises that we made, meet our contract obligations. And if they don’t, there should be legal recourse for you in a contract to get your money back. Or get a discount if they are still going to give you feedback, just delayed. And it is a reality that you often have deadlines stacked on top of each other. If you're expecting your developmental feedback back by a certain date, you probably have a line editor or a copy editor lined up for a reasonable time after that. And if your developmental editor is weeks late, that’s going to throw off your entire schedule, so you might lose deposit payments with other professionals. Everything else down the line can get screwed up by that. And that is a very real impact that whoever is missing that deadline and making that mess up should pay for. Probably literally. So, if it's casual, if people are doing this service to you for free, be polite, be professional, give them grace, always have multiple beta readers in case one of them drops out. But when it's professional, stand your ground, hold your boundaries, know your rights, and pursue them as needed.

Agnes: Okay, so back to the main topic for today. What are some common pitfalls or mistakes around reading outside feedback you've either fallen into yourself as a writer, or seen others make?

Rebecca: Sure. So, for myself, one of the biggest mistakes that I've ever made around receiving feedback was thinking that I was a better writer than I am, and I think that that's pretty common. When I finished writing my first book, I thought I was the bee's knees. I thought this was the best book ever written. And on one hand, that helped me get the book written, and then I started getting feedback, and it was a little bit brutal, but it needed to be, because I needed a lot of help on it. And the realization that I came to was, oh, I need to apply the same processes and mindsets and criticisms that I'm good at doing for other people's work on my own, and that sounds like it should be obvious, but it wasn't obvious to me at that time. So, I set it aside for months. And when I came back to it, I was able to view it more like an editor than the person who wrote it and went back to the feedback documents that I'd gotten from my beta readers and was able to do a lot more with that. Some of the common pitfalls that I've seen other folks make just includes expecting praise more than feedback, and if that's what you want, especially from a free beta reader, tell them. That's all I can really say. I do free beta reads now and then. I've got a group that I run that I do that in. And if someone's like, I just need encouragement, or I mostly need encouragement on this, I am happy to do that. 9 out of 10 of my comments will be, oh, I loved this moment, oh, that's a great line, oh, I love this character, oh, you have an animal familiar, I love that. And then, like, 1 in 10 will be something along the lines of, this scene feels a little bit slow, do you want to trim some of the stuff out, or, do you want to consider moving this scene early, or whatever? So, if you're not open to significant criticism or really constructive feedback, be clear about that. And if you get something outside of those requests, you need to be prepared to ignore it rather than getting upset about it. Another common pitfall that I've seen is just that people don't get emotionally involved in it, they don't get upset, but they also don't take it seriously. So, they will read something, and on their first knee-jerk reaction, go, “Nah,” and then never come back to it. Never give it the consideration that, personally, I would probably think it deserves. There is absolutely space for making those decisions for yourself. It is absolutely your right to read a piece of feedback at any level from any outside feedback and go, you know what, I think that they're wrong about that. Or, I want to take a completely different approach to fixing this issue than the one they recommend. But don't take that too far. If you're paying a professional, especially, you should probably weigh their advice like they're a professional. So, by all means, dismiss a piece of advice, but don't do so quickly or rashly. If you don't like it, highlight it, mark it, whatever, and then re-read the feedback document a couple of times. Come back to it when maybe you're in a different headspace, when you've had more sleep, whatever the situation is. And if you're going to scrap it, do so very purposefully, and make sure that you can articulate why. I'm sure there are other pitfalls that I've seen, that I've experienced, but those are kind of the big ones that I can think of right now, so, if folks have other ones that they would like to mention, comment those, and I'll see if I have further thoughts on it.

Agnes: This kind of piggybacks on yours, but having talked to a lot of writers, I find it interesting why people choose not to have beta readers, and then I also have found it interesting on what people have said about beta reading. And one of the things that I have heard from many of them is when they first got back from either a developmental editor or a beta reader, and they were like, I disagree, I disagree, I disagree! And they just thought, I'm a terrible writer, and they set it aside, and actually, that had served them well. Because when they picked it back up, they were able to see it with fresh eyes, and then they're like, oh, this makes a lot of sense. And talking to people who had beta readers, and they totally disagreed with it, and they were like, I'm never having a beta reader again, one of the things that I have heard that I definitely agree with is actually—I wish I had the quote, but it's from Stephen King, and he talked about how your readers usually are right about what is not correct, they're just usually wrong about why. And—because you are not the only development editor that I've talked to, you're my favorite, but you are not the only one—and the thing that I have heard back from all developmental editors is that the edits are usually so much smaller than the writer thinks, and so I think when you hear the feedback of, like, oh my goodness, this doesn't work, you need to scrap this entire thing. They might be right, it doesn't work, but you probably don't have to scrap the whole thing. You might just have to write a sentence, or a paragraph, or even just moving something. Anyway.

Rebecca: No, I think that's a great point, and specifically to that, when you're reading through feedback, by all means, always try to interpret smaller. So, absolutely, what you were just saying, but perhaps phrased more from an editor's standpoint, if you get feedback of… this character isn't acting like themselves in this scene. If you're in an emotional place, if this is close to your heart, or if you're just that kind of person, if this is how your brain works, one interpretation of that is, I need to go change how this character acts in every part of the book, I need to completely overhaul the character arc, this is going to take months, I don't know how to do this. Take a breath and interpret smaller. Go, okay, I need to change that one word describing their body language here so that it better fits everything else. Every piece of advice or feedback you ever get, by all means, feel free to interpret smaller, see if that works, and if it doesn’t, try scaling it up step by step. I think that is a fantastic point to bring up here.

Agnes: So, then, what are some other recommendations—back to the questions I have written down—that you have for folks to maybe approach this process better?

Rebecca: I feel like I've already touched on a few points, so trying not to repeat myself. I recommend following your gut instinct, but within reason. So, sometimes when I open an email from my dev editor, or a beta reader or something like that, I'm in the right headspace, and I will immediately open it up and read through it and start taking notes, because that's where I'm at that day, on that book, whatever the case may be. There are others, other books, other days, other beta readers, whatever, where I open the email and I just get that cold flash inside, and I'm just like, I can't do this right now. And I will, you know, download the document, and I will reply saying, thank you very much, I will read this when I have a chance. And then I go about my day like that didn't happen at all. So, it's important to pay attention and not hurt yourself or the creative process by trying to do what you can't at a given moment. However, you do need to come back to it at some point, if you do set it aside on a given day. So, give yourself grace, but also hold yourself accountable on a slightly larger scale. The other pieces of advice that I have are, take notes while you're reading through the document the first time. I’ve said this so many times, I really hope you have some sort of notes document separate from your manuscript where you can jot things down. So, have that open next to your feedback document, and as you're going through, what I very specifically recommend is, as you're reading through your feedback, when you see something that you're like, oh yeah, I can do that in 5 minutes, put that in your notes. And just keep reading through but essentially scrolling past the stuff that you feel resistance to, that you're not sure you agree on, that you're not sure you understand, that feels intimidating, whatever. But on your very first read of that feedback, pull out the things that you're like, yep, I can do that. Yep, I can do that. And before you do a second read of the feedback, go do those quick and easy things. That’s going to give you a win right off the bat, and I think that that is huge. Because after you've gone and you've done these things that are easy, that are very tangible and understandable and you totally agree with, you’re going to be more open to the other stuff, and perhaps now that you've fixed those quick and easy issues, as you do your second and third and fifth and 10th read-through of the feedback—whatever is needed and whatever fits your personality—some of those remaining issues may already have been fixed by what you already did. Or maybe because you went in and you fixed a quick and easy thing, you did see the pattern that this other note was talking about, so now you understand it on your next read-through. Taking those notes, doing the quick and easy things first, I think is super, super helpful. I think that it is also important to mention that you can keep communicating with the person who gave you feedback. It does not have to be a one-and-done thing. If that is the situation, if the editor is the kind of editor who doesn't want to hear from you ever again after you edit for them, which is not me, then sure. If this is a beta reader that you have no other connection with, and they make it pretty clear that, no, I'm done, washing my hands of it, sure. Most of the time, massive majority of the time, you can absolutely make a list of the things that you're not clear on or that you kind of want to get a better explanation of because you don't think you agree, but maybe if they explained it differently you would, kind of stuff. And a week after, maybe a month after, don't wait too long, feel free to send them an email. Or ask for another Zoom call, whatever the arrangement is, and ask for the clarity, because you can get it. And just the act of articulating, “hey, I didn't understand what you meant, really, when you said this scene felt comical, and I absolutely wasn't going for that. Can you talk me through that a little bit more?” by itself can be incredibly helpful in processing, figuring things out, stuff like that. I’m sure I have more advice on this, and when I'm working with clients, if they hit any sticking points processing my feedback, I love talking to them about it, I love doing Zoom calls, debriefs, whatever. So, if anyone ever feels like they're hitting sticking points, please talk to me about it.

Agnes: So, how can we figure out what works best for our personalities for us around consuming and doing something with this feedback? Especially if it's our first time getting this kind of feedback, and we're not used to getting this kind of feedback.

Rebecca: Sure. I think my advice around listen to your gut but also hold yourself accountable is sort of a starting point. Beyond that, try a certain approach for a day, or a week, or whatever feels right. So, if, let's say, you're new to this, this is your first time getting feedback, for the first week, try the approach of, I'm going to be kind to myself, and I'm going to let it sit, and I'm going to let it process, and I'm just going to try to let it sort of subconsciously filter into emotions. At the end of that week, if you still haven't gotten anything done, that’s probably not the right approach for you. So, second week, let’s try taskmaster approach, where I am absolutely going to force myself to do X, Y, and Z on this timeline, and I'm not going to do anything else, and I have to meet these deadlines. If, at the end of the week, you have gotten stuff done but you really don't want to ever touch this project again as long as you live, that’s also probably not the right approach for you. So, feel free to experiment, and in doing so, just make sure that you give yourself a deadline so that it doesn't become just prolonged failure. And try both extremes. Try options that you hear about other authors using. Ask authors that you know, hey, what do you do? Maybe I'll try that for a week. And over time—so over maybe a couple of months, which is totally reasonable for self-editing with this feedback—you can, even if it's your first book, even if it's your first time getting feedback, develop these patterns for yourself. And I do recommend, when something works for you, write it down. For myself, I have notes on, okay, don't do a sugar breakfast if I need to do intense editing, because then my brain is just not at its peak. And don't let myself sleep in too late, because I actually do function better when I wake up a little bit earlier in the day. Have this certain music going on. When I find something that works, I write it down. But, the caveat to that is, people change. So, if you're writing, let's say, one book a year, so you're going through this process about once a year, it is totally reasonable and normal that what worked perfectly for your process last year might need adjustments and tweaking and additions and rethinking the next year. So, have grace for yourself, but do try not to forget a great little trick that worked for you if it's going to keep working for you.

Agnes: So, I have a lot of thoughts on this next topic, so I'm curious what you're going to say, and you're probably going to say exactly what's on my mind, but can we just touch back on what role our non-negotiables that we talked about forever ago should be playing right now in the process?

Rebecca: This is where they come into full use. You should have them written down. If you didn't do that back in that episode, whatever that was, write them down now. And I recommend having it visually, in your field, when you're looking at your work, especially when you're reading the feedback. So, I will put it on a sticky note, and I will stick it to my laptop screen. Having that boulder, like we were talking about, established is going to help you build the path around it. If your non-negotiable was, let's say, something like… my antagonist is actually a good person, which is going to force the reader to see my protagonist as perhaps morally gray or an anti-hero. And you get feedback of going, I don't think your antagonist is actually an antagonist. They're not acting like a villain. What do you mean this is the antagonist? You keep framing them like that, but they don't feel like that. What are you doing? You’ve written down what your non-negotiable is. Ignore any of the feedback that you don’t think works with that. It is important to still read that feedback. So if you see a note that starts with, your antagonist has blah, blah, blah—finish reading the paragraph and maybe take a breath with it, and decide for yourself, okay, could I tweak a sentence here and there just a little bit without compromising my non-negotiable that would still address this piece of feedback, let's say, 10%? Okay, cool, maybe you want to do that. But, at the end of the day, if you have a very solid non-negotiable and you're getting feedback around it, delete those comments. That's the entire point, because you want to still love your book, and you want to have that armor of knowing, you know what, this is the one thing you don't get to touch. This is my boundary. And frankly, having that non-negotiable, knowing that one specific-as-you-can thing that does not get to get touched, is going to make everything else so much easier. Because of course you can change that. It's not your non-negotiable, it's not that big of a deal. Oh, you want me to completely rearrange these 5 scenes? I mean, that doesn't touch my non-negotiable, sure. So, non-negotiables aren't just about what doesn't get touched. It's about keeping this one little thing safe so that it feels so much easier to do everything else.

Agnes: Like you had said, I think it is important that we read it even if we choose not to listen to it. Because I actually think that hearing people's feedback on your non-negotiables, especially if it's against it, can actually help strengthen why you have it as a non-negotiable, and it might actually be like, okay, they didn't like this, but you know what? Maybe it's because I haven't built up why this is so important. So that's actually what I was thinking about when I had this question for you. The next thing is, what if it's not a non-negotiable, but we just really don't like some of the feedback that we got, and it's not related to our non-negotiable, or which it just feels just way too harsh, or mean, or objective to really do anything with?

Rebecca: Sure. This is going to happen. The more you write, the more feedback you get. Especially if you're trying to use a large beta team, you are going to get feedback that just feels mean or totally off-base, or you're wondering what book they read because it could not possibly have been the one you sent them. My top recommendation here, first of all, is to separate yourself from the work. They are not angry at you. They are not judging you as a bad person or a bad writer. They didn't like this particular story, and no story is written for everyone. Very closely related to that, and a close second on my list of recommendations here are, touch back on your ideal reader. I don't remember if that was episode 1 or 2 in this series, but it is so, so important, because at this stage in the process, it is really important to know who your ideal reader is, compare that to the reader giving you feedback, and adjust your interpretation as needed because of it. If you are, for example, writing a novel for middle-aged men who really like thrillers and light horror and you're getting nasty feedback from a teenage girl, that's not your ideal reader. That's wildly off from your ideal reader, or even a middle-aged, retired man who likes police procedurals and thrillers but does not like horror or anything remotely fantasy. Knowing how they contrast to that ideal can be very, very helpful in understanding, perhaps, why they are expressing themselves in this off-color way, or simply allow you to take their feedback of, I don't like this, and interpret it through a lens that goes, okay, well, they don't like this, but I think my ideal reader would like it if I just tweaked it this little bit, and that can really, really help you move forward. Beyond that, if you're getting feedback that you know isn't related to your non-negotiable but is still too harsh, or too brutally honest—which, I hate that term—or hard to view objectively in any kind of way, what you can do is anchor back on the heart of your story. Why did you write this story in the first place? Why do you like this story? Why do you think that if people read this story, they would like it and remember it and recommend it? Just try to stay grounded on that. And use that as additional armor as you're reading the feedback. Remember that, to you, this is a great story. Remember that, to you, this is the best story ever, because you wanted to write it, because you couldn't find it. And at the end of the day, if someone is just being mean, and it feels like they're being mean for the sake of it, delete their feedback. All of it. Get it out of your life, because if it's not productive, then it's not productive. And being a writer, being an author, being a aspiring whatever you want to be with your writing and your creativity does not obligate you to listen to them. It does not obligate you to value their perspective at all. And unfortunately, I've had to face this with a paid developmental editor in my past. Where I had to take that moment of going, they are not my ideal reader. They clearly do not connect with the heart of the story that I know connects with me and will with others. I don't feel like they're engaging in good faith. I don't feel like I'm getting value out of this. So, I'd already applied what feedback of theirs I felt was valuable, I'd taken notes, and at the end of the day, I'm sitting there stressing, going, I paid a lot of money for this feedback, I feel obligated to do something with it, and then took a step back and went, I don't think that they actually had my or my book's best interests at heart. I'm going to put it all in a separate folder and never look at it again. And I'm really glad that I did. And I have had writing friends who've had beta readers like that, who've had different dev editors who they had to deal with that with. And I think it really comes down to, you don't owe them valuing their opinion if they prove their opinion unworthy of value.

Agnes: And I think that we can kind of take that as, especially going forward picking out beta readers and picking out developmental editors, that we want to try to look for people who are at least somewhat our target audience. Obviously, I'm probably going to have some adults read my middle grade book, but at least people who enjoy that sort of thing and are familiar with that genre—and which is a big part of why I actually chose you over a couple of the other ones, is because even though you are not a middle grade writer or reader, you are a fantasy reader and writer. And so for that, I was like, okay, this was one of the many reasons I chose you. So, I feel like we've covered a lot about just consuming the feedback. What do we do next? How do we actually use that feedback, so once we have consumed and internally processed all of this feedback, what's the next step?

Rebecca: Sure. So, I already covered what I suggest the very first step be, which is do the quick and easy things. Take the steps immediately that you can do with changing a sentence, or swapping two scenes and changing a paragraph in each so that the timeline still works. Whatever you feel like you can do quickly and competently, get it done, get it out of the way, and then start looking at the other things. So, my recommended process is, if you get feedback on a specific topic, let's say, I don't feel like your characters really have an arc, I don't feel like they really grow over the course of the story and that's preventing me from feeling invested. Go revisit whatever resources work for you on the topic of character arcs. So, maybe that's the episode or episodes that we did that covered that topic in this series. Maybe that's a certain blog post, or a book, or a YouTube series that you like on that topic. And just re-consume it. And as you're re-consuming it, take notes on how you think that might apply to your specific situation. Beyond that, once you've sort of refreshed on any overarching topics you need to, make lists of ideas for potential fixes. I think that the process of Implementing feedback edits can often be seen as sort of this binary of ones and zeros of, alright, I got feedback, I need to make this change. I got this feedback, I need to make that change. I got this feedback, I need to make that change. And that's not what I recommend doing. I am a huge proponent of iterative brainstorming. So, if you get feedback about a specific issue, by all means, brainstorm 5 different ways that you could potentially fix it. And that is going to keep you from getting stuck to a significant degree, and it's going to save you from this feeling of, I don't even know where to start. And hopefully it will also save you from this issue of, but I don't want to make that fix.

When you give yourself options—and ideally, options that sort of explore a wider range of considerations around a piece of feedback—I think that that can be incredibly helpful in keeping the creative flow going and keeping things productive, and actually getting through feedback instead of just reading it over and over and over, waiting for that sort of spark of inspiration where you finally know how to fix the thing. Beyond that, I recommend trying to plan out what changes you want to make all together and then going and applying them all. It can be really, really tedious and waste time if you get one piece of feedback, let’s say about an act structure issue, so you want to shift some things around a little bit—so you do that, and then another piece of feedback is now much harder to apply because you've changed the order of things, or you've introduced a new issue that now needs to get changed. So, like I've been doing through this entire series, I recommend, plan out all the changes you're going to make in a round of editing, make sure that they all work together, and then go in and apply them. And then lastly on this, once you're done with addressing all of the pieces of outside feedback that you want to, or that you're willing to, or that feel enough, do go and do another round of polishing. So, essentially, the topics that we covered in this series in episodes 41 through 47. Because doing more structural edits, doing more content editing, is going to introduce more typos and grammar and punctuation and whatever other polishing needs to get then put on top of it again. The good thing is, doing the polishing steps again now after the feedback stages is going to go so much faster and easier because you already did it once before, you're just now trying to catch the new sort of scuffs that got put on the project.

Agnes: So, this is another topic that I have a lot of thoughts on, but what can we do if we do agree with the piece of feedback, especially about something that isn't working quite right, but we don't know where to start in figuring out exactly what needs to be fixed or how to do so? I feel like this is where I am, and that's why I have some thoughts on this.

Rebecca: I would love to hear your thoughts on that, and then I will add my own.

Agnes: Well, one of the things that I— You kind of mentioned some of it already—but I found doing the smaller edits first worked a lot better. And also just giving yourself time to re-brainstorm has really helped me actually, like journaling. Because I'm looking at it, and I'm like, okay, I know I need to change this, but I have no idea what. And instead of actually working in my book, I actually journaled about the thing, and that helped me, because then I was like, okay, and then I started having all of these ideas, and it was almost like writing my story all over again. Because I feel like that's the exciting part for me, is to actually write, not the editing portions. I felt like just having that brainstorming with journaling, and daydreaming, like literally just taking a walk and just thinking about it, was really what helped me the most to move forward. But again, doing the small edits first. Because those will help those creative juices, as they like to say, really get stirred is start small and slowly work your way up to the bigger edits. That's what's worked for me.

Rebecca: My top piece of advice is exactly what you were just talking about, which is process it. And that can be journaling, that can be talking to yourself out loud while you're driving, that can very much be talking to other authors and kind of picking their brain a little bit, like, hey, have you ever gotten feedback about this? How did you deal with that? Or what resources did you read, whatever? One other piece of advice that I will offer is try rewording the piece of feedback in your own voice. Try just rewriting it like you're giving that advice to somebody else. And do that 3 or 4 times. That, on its own, can help you simply take this advice that isn't really meshing with you, and just reword it in a way that your brain can process so much easier.

And then the other thought that I have right now to address specifically feeling stuck is go consume other media and see how they dealt with the same thing. And ideally, consume media that you think is really good, don't consume garbage. Ideally consume media that's in genre, or at least in vibe with yours, and that can be movies, TV, audiobooks, anything. But consume it specifically bearing in mind whatever it is you're stuck on. If you're stuck on having a character arc that really pays off at the end, go watch a movie that pretty much everyone says has a great character arc and just pay attention. Don't have to dissect it, you don't have to analyze it like you're in school, just pay attention, because what you're watching for is inspiration more than answers. When you're consuming this media, just let the muses come to you, let there be that little spark of, oh, that line really shows this kind of change, I'll bet that I could do a similar line if I did this with my character! kind of thing. You’re just consuming media for inspiration, for that light bulb moment. And that is one of the ways that I personally get unstuck most of the time that I run into that in my own writing.

Agnes: I think that's wonderful advice. Actually, that's something that I did as well, is one of the feedback that you had given, which I kind of already knew, like, I felt like I knew a lot of what you said. There was a few things that were a little bit different. But it was that I needed to have more middle grade problems. You know, some of the problems that us adults don't think about as problems but are actually problems when you're in middle grade. And so I actually picked up the Sisters Grimm, which is one of my all-time favorite middle grade series. I've read it so many times, I've read it to each of my girls. We're reading it again. And that actually helped me remember, okay, this is what a middle grade mind is like, these are the middle grade problems. And that's wonderful advice. So now that we've talked about all of that, I do have one last question. What happens after that? What happens last in self-editing, I suppose, since we are just about at the end of our series, what are the big-picture next steps after finishing the self-editing we do based on the outside feedback we get?

Rebecca: This is largely what the next episode is going to go into, and specifically for self-editing, like I said, the next steps are line editor or a copy editor. If anybody needs a suggestion for a great line editor, copy editor, and/or proofreader, there's one on my website. Natasha is amazing, she does great work. And then for traditional publishing, the very next step is going to be to find an agent. So, I kind of refer folks back to the bit more of an in-depth rundown we did on that in the last episode when we were talking about finding these people and preparing for those steps. So, we're going to go over that again in the next episode, we went over that in the last episode a little bit. It's essentially editor or an agent. That is the one next step to put your energy into.

Agnes: Well, thank you so much for everything, and I cannot believe we just finished our 51st episode.

Rebecca: Woo!

Agnes: We only have one episode left, I can't believe it.

Rebecca: It feels unreal, it really does. But also, I'm so happy with how much we've been able to cover so far. Like I hinted at, next week we are going to do the very last episode of this year-long self-editing series, and keep things light, as I know folks are probably busy during the holidays. So, we will be talking about some last-minute, kind of fun, optional things to do a final self-editing pass around. Such as collecting your favorite quotes and starting to build ideas for book art and your final blurb. Things like that. For now, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, Blessed Yule, Happy Holidays to everyone celebrating anything around this time of year. And I also want to thank everyone following along with this series. I hope that if you know any other authors who are nearing the end of their first draft or struggling with rewriting or revising their novel, you'll consider sending them this series to help them understand and finish the process of self-editing. Thank you for joining me today, Agnes, and I will see you in the next and last one.

Agnes: I know, thank you, and I'm so excited to do our last one.

Rebecca: Thank you so much for listening to the Hart Bound Editing Podcast. I look forward to bringing you more content to help you make your good story great so it can change lives and change your world. Follow along to hear more or visit my website, linked in the description, to learn how I can help you and your story to flourish.

See you next time!