Screenwriting and Getting Feedback

_ Getting feedback on your work can be hard at the best of times.  Getting feedback from trusted people with experience in writing, whether it is novels, screenplays or short stories can be extremely difficult.

As a writer you want to get feedback from people that understand how to construct an entertaining story.  A story that will keep people interested and entertained.

They understand the dynamics that go into creating a story.  They understand story, structure, dialogue etc.

You certainly do not need to pay someone a load of money to critique or evaluate your story.  There are plenty of sites where you can get plenty of feedback and opinions on your work for free without paying over the odds for it.

At the end of the day you’re looking for feedback that will help you make your story, characters better.

Sometimes when you get this feedback, it might rub you up the wrong way and you may want to take a few jabs and punches at them because they haven’t really understood what you’ve tried to convey in your story.  Perhaps they’ve misunderstood your characters motivation, dialogue etc.

They may not have liked your writing style, or maybe the story completely flew over their heads.

It’s up to you as the writer what you should take and leave from people’s feedback and opinions. 

Don’t get all pissed and defensive just because you don’t agree with their point of view or ideas for improving your story.

Leave it and come back to it another day.

If they didn’t understand the story. 

Ask yourself why?  What can I do to improve it?  How can I get the message across to the reader?

When someone offers to read your work and spend a couple of hours of their time reading and writing up their opinions on it.  Say thanks or be thankful.  No one’s forcing them to read it at the end of the day.  And that one idea they give you, that one kernel of knowledge might be the very thing that strengthens your story and work.

Putting your work out there for people to read and evaluate is a tough thing to do.

It’s not easy listening to someone be critical of something you’ve written or created.

Being able to take on board feedback and use that to your advantage is the trick to improving as a writer.  Of course, not everything that they say will be of value or even useful.  But you never know.  Nobody knows anything!

You need a thick skin or be able to grow a thick skin fast.

Otherwise you won’t last the distance.

And at the end of the day, it’s just someone’s opinion.  It may be right, it may be wrong, it might work, it might not.  It’s up to you as a writer to decide and figure out what to use and what to leave.

Remember, it’s your story at the end of the day. 

Just be thankful that someone, anyone has even bothered to take the time to read it at all.  Because they didn't have to.

Write – Get Feedback – Rewrite and keep writing.