Beyond the dualistic interface: interacting creatively with feedback

ABSTRACT

An essay examining and interrogating the standard methodologies surrounding the reception of feedback on creative work and, with reference to the writer’s personal experience as both writer and writing tutor, suggesting more flexible and innovative approaches to this part of the creative process.

KEYWORDS:

• Authorship
• collaboration
• creativity
• editing
• writing

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Philip Emery is a freelance writer who has been interacting creatively with feedback since the seventies, on work including two novel-length books, plays, short stories and non-fiction. Several of his poems and creative non-fiction articles have appeared in New Writing.

Notes

1 Incidentally, in working through the reviewers’ comments on ‘Decaying Circle’ I came across an observation that although the three bunker characters’ personalities were sufficiently differentiated, ‘at times the subject of the dialogue can be quite similar.’ In looking back I found that an earlier draft of the play contained pencilled adjustments to the dialogue which further differentiated the bunker writers. Somehow these modifications had been lost in the final(!) draft sent for review, and these were subsequently restored; I’m not entirely sure that this was the point being made by the reviewer, but it illustrates how reading/considering feedback benefits from a less black-and-white accept/reject mind-set.

2 The story ‘Wednesday’s Child’ appears in the collection The Celt in the Machine published by Immanion Press. A read-through of a stage version can be found at: https://macguffin.io/search/?tag=wednesdays_child&text.