Kelly ChastainMay 7, 2026

How To Ask for Feedback on Your Writing and Get Notes That Actually Help

You have more control over this than you think

In all my years teaching creative writing, I utilized a writing workshop model in my class that was a mash up Liz Lerman’s Critical Response Process and the philosophy of Felicia Rose Chavez’s The Anti-Racist Writing Workshop. If you lead creative writing sessions with a feedback component, I can’t recommend Chavez’s work enough.

If you’re in a writing group, looking to form one, or if you’re asking beta readers for feedback and don’t know how to direct them, this is for you. Guidelines aren’t just helpful. They establish expectations and set the tone. So, along with your creative work, you’re going to create a document that will consist of four parts.

What I’d Like You To Focus On

In this section, you’ll tell your readers what you’re having the biggest issues with, or what you perceive as trouble. For example, if you’ve been working on deepening your MCs characterization by including more interiority, you can ask your reader to note where it is and isn’t working. Where it’s too much or not enough. Where it starts to feel like we’re living in their head more than in the world you’ve created.

This also helps your readers understand what’s important to you as the writer. I read a lot of submissions in genres that aren’t my preferred genre. That’s how it works when you’re teaching, and having my students tell me what to focus on has taught me a ton about how they see their genre, some of the conventions that I may have missed, and what’s truly important to them in their story.

It’s too easy to get caught up in what we want the story to be, but when the writer tells us precisely what they’re going for, and asks if we can look out here and see if they’ve hit it? It takes us off the hook, and they get better feedback.

If this is a rough draft and you’re just trying to see if the idea has teeth, you can say something like, I’m just looking for your general impression. Let me know what’s standing out to you good and bad. You don’t have to have 15 bullet points and a manifesto here. A few way markers can make all the difference.

What I Already Know Isn’t Working

This is where you tell your reader what you’re working through, and that can take a variety of forms. For example:

This is the first time I’m trying this in third person, and I know I’ve probably missed some of the pronouns and verb conjugations after I flipped it from first person. I also know this POV switch isn’t fully landing.

This can range from a few sentences to a few paragraphs so your readers understand the context of your thinking, and the other elements of the story that you’re grappling with as you’re making decisions.

If this is a rough draft and you already know that most of it isn’t working, this is the place to let your readers know where you are in the larger process. Flagging it as a shitty first draft is massively helpful for your readers because they’ll know not to flag every typo. We’ll all assume that most of this is going to be rewritten, and the feedback can focus on the broader points of the narrative.

My List of Questions

The magic of this section is where you ask for help specific help if you want it. It’s also a great place to add more context to your questions to help your readers give you more considered feedback.

  • I know the train station scene is a real mess, and when this was in first person the reader knew what the character was thinking and her motivation. Any suggestions on how to let the reader know that she’s planning to rob the ticket agent? I want the reader to still have sympathy for her.
  • When the porters are emptying the baggage car, they drop and trunk and everything spills out of it. Did that seem like a reasonable enough distraction for her to be able to rob the ticket agent? Is there something even more obnoxious that would make more people turn to look, and make her get away more believable?
  • I tried to differentiate the men in the train car by giving one a mustache and the other a midwestern accent. Was it enough?

This is what I call the developmental editing section of the document because usually looking for help to patch a hole in your plot, or make a scene really sing. This tells your reader that they can get creative and that you’re open to their interpretations. That brainstorming is welcome. You also don’t have to put anything in this section. It’s entirely optional.

This is How I Want To Receive Your Feedback

This is the most important part of this document. Even if you don’t put anything in the other three sections, don’t sleep on this one. This is where you tell folks the best way to give you feedback. It’s perfectly reasonable to say something like:

Please only tell me the positives when we meet, and I’ll go over the page notes to see the critiques of what isn’t working in writing. It’s easier for me to digest the feedback that way.

You might be the kind of writer who wants your readers to tear your piece to shreds and give it to you straight. I had a ton of students who were like that, but I also had a ton who thrived with a gentler approach. And I wanted to honor them all. Because the whole point of having a writing community, and giving each other feedback, is to help each other become the writers we want to be.

And we can’t do that if half the room feels like they’ve been flogged or handled like blown glass. Whether you’re anxious about feedback, gung-ho to hear it, or somewhere in between, this model gives guidelines for everyone. Readers included. Phew!

We’ve made a fillable template if that makes your life easier. You can grab it here.

“Read” this post as a YouTube video instead

Join our Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel (which meets every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST), where we’ll be building routine and community with YOU. Subscribe to get notified, and if you’re even a little bit interested, please fill out our quick survey so we can expand these in the future with you in mind.

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Kelly ChastainApril 30, 2026

What Pride and Prejudice Teachs Us About Character Journeys

The character arcs that keep readers glued to the page

I wish this same advice held for the real world. Alas…

If you’ve never heard of a character arc, you’re not alone. But you probably have a sense of what it is because you read books and you watch films. Not to mention, you’ve seen your best friend finally dump Chad after taking him back 7 times, omg. That was a RIDE. But look at our girl and how she’s grown!

And that is the whole point of a character arc. There are three main categories of arcs, and a whole host of sub categories to choose from. We’re going macro to get the basics down first.

The Positive Character Arc

Ah, the one where they become a better person. This is also the arc that most of us think of first. It’s rags to riches, the bad seed turned philanthropist, Mr. Darcy cutting out all of his bullshit insults to Elizabeth Bennet and becomes a single man in possession of a good fortune who’s actually worth the hassle.

This character either starts off good and grows, or starts off bad and redeems themselves through change. Either way, they follow a similar pattern.

  • The character holds a false belief about something that’s usually in direct conflict with what they truly want.
    • Like that jerk, Mr. Darcy, proclaiming Elizabeth’s tolerable even though she’s obviously not handsome enough to tempt him. LOLZ.
  • The truth is quickly introduced.
    • And damn it, just like that Darcy likes Elizabeth. Albeit against his will, reason, and his very character.
  • A setback ensues.
    • Elizabeth’s having none of these contradictions declarations of love. Against your will? I’ll die penniless, thank you very much.
  • And so, the adventure or quest begins, where the truth of the matter takes over the character’s belief system so completely that they change.
    • In which, Darcy rescues Lydia from that scoundrel Wickham and restores honor to Elizabeth’s family so Elizabeth herself isn’t harmed by the scandal.
    • And that, in turn, changes Elizabeth’s opinion of him.

The Negative Character Arc

This one hits hard because there’s so much hope. There’s so much potential for this to turn itself around. Like your best friend giving Chad chance after chance. The will they/won’t they back and forth is hypnotizing. But even with all the struggle, the reasoning, the bargaining, the pleading for crying out loud, it’s all for not.

This character is either going to fall back into the lie, be disillusioned by it, or become a villain in their own right.

  • The character holds a false belief about something that’s usually supporting some story they’ve been telling themselves, or props up an ideal that they’ve bought hook, line, and sinker.
    • Lydia, Elizabeth Bennet’s flibbertigibbet sister, is so boy crazy that she believes any pretty whisperings in her ear. No matter which rake is whispering them. She’s idealized romance to such a degree that she’s blind to possible pitfalls.
    • It doesn’t help that Mrs. Bennet is desperate to marry her daughters off and the first bidder is just fine with her.
  • The truth is quickly introduced.
    • While Mr. Wickham is in the army and that seems respectable enough, there’s something off about him. But it all has to do with Mr. Darcy, who’s a jackass, so is he bad? Not to Lydia because offscreen Wickham is wooing the dewy-eyed lass.
  • A setback ensues.
    • The reader is fully aware of what it means if Lydia ruins herself. Lydia even knows. And still, she fights for the idea of Wickham. The disillusionment about marriage, and to him in particular, hits a fever pitch.
  • And so, the adventure or quest begins, where the character actively chooses the lie over the truth of the matter.
    • Lydia elopes with that scoundrel Wickham, and threatens dishonor to Elizabeth’s family until she’s rescued by Mr. Darcy and he sets the whole thing right.

The Flat Character Arc

But I thought you said the character had to change? What’s this flat arc business? Change here happens because of the character. While we might think that super hero stories would fit into the Positive Character Arc, superheroes don’t grow and only occasionally have to redeem themselves. They’re super in the beginning and they stay super. That’s why we watch every Knives Out film and read every Hercule Poirot novel. That’s why Marvel is blockbuster franchise. This character is reliable.

That means, this arc requires a ton of characterization upfront. While this can be a main character like James Bond, they’re often supporting cast and act as foils, comic relief, or a point of contrast to the other characters who are changing.

  • The character already knows the truth. The internal battle here is being able to maintain that truth.
    • Enter Mr. Collins, the idiotic social climbing clergyman and his incessant rambling about Lady Catherine De Bourgh. He believes that he’s really something important because of who he’s connected to, and he’s determined that everyone else does as well.
  • The truth is quickly tested.
    • Mr. Collins sets his cap at marrying Elizabeth Bennett. Only our girl is having none of it. After a lengthy and rambling sales pitch proposal, Elizabeth rejects him again and again.
      • “I am perfectly serious in my refusal. You could not make me happy, and I am convinced that I am the last woman in the world who could make you so.” OUCH. But does it change his belief? Nope.
  • And so, the quest begins to find another character who will either believe the same truth with him or let him continue believing it. ie – Changing the conditions, or the story around him, to keep the truth alive.
    • Hello, Charlotte Lucas.
      • 27 years old.
      • No money.
      • No prospects.
      • A burden to her parents.
      • Frightened.
    • Charlotte sees Mr. Collins as a means of survival, and arranges their home and married life in such a way that sees him as little as possible.
    • This marriage keeps Mr. Collins truth alive. That’s he’s a real somebody.
    • We also see Elizabeth and Jane marry well, and the contrast is startling.

A note on plotting

Now you might be thinking, holy hell. I’ve got to plot a character and plot a plot and plot the timeline and, and, and. That can feel like a ton at first, but here’s where it gets good. These plots take care of each other. When you find a character’s motivation, their beliefs and values, and what they want, the Plot plot starts to write itself. Because the ways in which you can complicate this character’s life become very clear.

So. Deep breath. You’ve got this.

“Read” this post as a YouTube video instead, if you’re so inclined!

Join our Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel (which meets every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST), where we’ll be building routine and community with YOU. Subscribe to get notified, and if you’re even a little bit interested, please fill out our quick survey so we can expand these in the future with you in mind.

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Kelly ChastainApril 16, 2026

Why Your Characters Feel Flat and How to Fix It

And how to Frankenstein them all together to, hopefully, better outcomes. Or not.

Some of my favorite stories have the most vivid and complicated characters, and I’m guessing yours do too. When a character is so singular, we can’t help but fall in love. Last week, Bri set us up with a character interview. And today, I’m going to show you a few pillars of character development that will help you turn your red-headed orphan into Anne of Green Gables.

AKA – WHY are we filling out that character interview in the first place?

Establish Your Character’s Credibility

Credibility helps your readers understand what’s normal for this character, the world they live in, and how they navigate it. This is why stereotypes are so powerful. Right or wrong, they become a shorthand for what we expect from a certain type of person.

For example: The owner of an international big box store vs. the owner of a Mom & Pop general store in a farming community of 1,000 people. Same type of job, radically different type of person. Establishing a type is simply a building block that you can use to carve your unique character out of.

Ways to establish credibility:

  • What’s appropriate for this character? And by that, I mean – what’s a reasonable expectation for this type of character?
  • What’s the social/biological breakdown? Gender, race, class, age – all the ways humans discriminate against one another. Ew, gross, but also important to know because…
    • If you leave these details out, the story will be slow to take off because readers, right or wrong, can’t get a grasp on who this person is supposed to be or how they’re supposed to act.
    • Establish this early, so you can immediately correct the record for how this character acts, and then uphold or subvert expectations.

Establish Your Character’s Purpose

Understanding the reason this character is in the narrative gives us something to hope for, and helps establish the direction the story might go. All of this props up the reader’s expectations, which you can immediately subvert or not.

Ways to establish purpose:

  • Determine what your character wants. Are they looking for love, or to cope with the suffocating small town life they’re living, or to help other people escape enemy occupied territory?
  • What’s the point of having this character in the narrative at all? Which, I admit, sounds a little existential, but understanding their role in your story also illuminates the kind of character they are or can be.
    • Not everyone has MC energy and that’s a good thing.

Establish Your Character’s Complexity

Complexity is what makes us love a character, grip the pages with wide eyes as they make very out of character decisions, which reveals their ability to change and grow over the course of the story. While they don’t have to have the range of a yo-yo, they do need some flexibility in their decision making. It’s most fun when a character is downright confounding at times. When they spiral of their axis. When they finally do the thing they’ve been resisting, believe in themselves, or take the big risk.

Ways to establish complexity:

  • Determine your character’s values. They might hold onto certain rules about life right up until the thing or person they love most is threatened. Then it all goes out the window.
  • Determine your character’s beliefs. If they hold something to be incorruptible, and operate from that belief set, you open a whole host of opportunities for that belief system to fail or be abandoned. That makes them human and full of nuance.
  • Determine your character’s strengths. Are they a wizard with language but an absolute dunce when it comes to relationships?
    • Where do they shine, and where does it makes sense that they should shine, but don’t?

Most readers aren’t looking for that perfect hero or heroine, but a real messy human in all their glory. Because at the end of the day, we’re all complex, nuanced, and hoping like hell we aren’t failing too badly. When we see that on the page, it reaffirms that we’re all in this together.

“Read” this post as a YouTube video instead, if you’re so inclined!

Join our Writing Community Hour over on The Rogue MFA YouTube channel (which meets every other Thursday evening at 4pm PST/ 7pm EST), where we’ll be building routine and community with YOU. Subscribe to get notified, and if you’re even a little bit interested, please fill out our quick survey so we can expand these in the future with you in mind.

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