Since surrealism is a style I don’t dabble in too often, getting a read on what parts were confusing in the right ways, vs. confusing in the wrong ways, was very beneficial.
I received a lot of helpful feedback on the images that were working and felt vividly described. Readers also told me what they felt the central theme to the poem was, and which sections were confusing or could be written clearer.
I received feedback about the content and how to improve the direction of the story as well as give it more authenticity. I added three paragraphs to give the story more context and depth. I also changed the title of the piece.
I received feedback on the title, which I changed from Ode to Ohio to Ode to Cleveland. I also received feedback on certain lines and their wording. Additionally, I was encouraged to play around with stanza breaks, which I tried but didn’t like.
People wanted to know more about the viewpoint these observations were coming from, essentially who the speaker was. Also, people suggested using the title as a way of providing more context for the reader.
When I brought this piece to Writers Guild, people encouraged me to experiment with the formatting, which I tried to lean into, since I’m not always the most experimental when it comes to layout and visual appearance.
This is one of the older pieces in my collection-in-progress (the date I probably started receiving feedback was in November of 2019!), but I’ve had additional feedback on the poem since then, and I know that Writers Guild will always be there to look at subsequent drafts. The writing process is always a joy when there’s a community to share it with!
Ava O’Malley gave me feedback on my short story. She helped me revise for setting, placement, and wording. For example, she suggested that I add details on the setting and edit out redundancy. Based on her suggestions, I also reorganized some sections of the essay and added details to clarify some terms I use. While I tried my best to follow all of her suggestions, the suggestions on reorganization were the most difficult to follow because this essay follows the disjunctive essay format spearheaded by Michel de Montaigne. The nature of this type of essay is intended in its nature to be meandering, going back and forth, and for the writer to not really know what they are trying to say until the end.
Everyone at Writers Guild was so receptive of my work and took their feedback seriously. I received really helpful and varied feedback that made my revision process a lot easier. I love that I have a community of writers at the Guild who I know have my back!
I really enjoyed this Writing Center Appointment; it pushed my writing in new directions and also alerted me to what my writing was doing “right.”