Amateur Feedback
Feedback from their audience can be a tremendous help for artists.
Generally, individuals either resist or see it as a way to score points with the artist. We all know about the latter. Resistance often comes from the person's idea that providing feedback should be someone who is proficient with the art or who is a professional reviewer.
Of course, what we really look for is raw personal feedback. We're looking for someone who is not skilled with our art and who is not a professional reviewer.
With that in mind, here is a short 101 for those non-professionals who may provide feedback about your art.
How to give good feedback!
Art: Music, writing, sculpture, paintings, food, architecture — anything creatively created.
What not to do and what to do —
Resist the urge to say the things you think the artist would like to hear. The artist already knows what those things are.
• Instead, view or hear or taste the art as if the artist was temporarily out of the loop. Report your personal experience with the art and feelings it stimulates for you.
Resist the urge to suggest ways to improve the art.
• Instead, report your personal point of view and feelings and observations that occurred when you paid attention to the art.
Resist offering any criticism, even constructive criticism. Creativity is unique. Every artist is unique. Affecting the creativity of an artist, no matter the intent, tends to stifle the person's ability to be creative.
• Instead, simply report your own observations. Do it as a personal disclosure of reaction to the art.
Recap: Talk about your reaction to the art. Don't talk about how the art could be improved.
A note about ego: What is often interpreted as artist ego is not ego. Instead, it is the artist dealing with suppression of their creativity by someone's suggestion on how to improve their art. Improvement suggestions are only appropriate when an artist is actively engaged with someone for getting better with their craft.
URL for Feedback 101 Section Only
If you want to send the feedback points to non-artists, the same as this page but without the intro, send them to this URL (tap it to see): https://willbontrager.com/writer-tools/amateurfeedback.php?feedback
If you prefer the feedback 101 text as a meme, you are welcome to use this one: Text as Meme
