What's the best and worst feedback you've ever received as an author?

[LastMinami]

The best feedback will be from you and another guy who told me it was good work; the worst will be from a critic who only read the synopsis and said my current novel was generic.

 

[Dawnathon]

The best feedback I ever received was that a dumb joke I slipped into the narration snapped the reader out of the trance he was in while reading. I didn't even intend it to be that captivating, but after hearing how I fumbled it, I suddenly felt like I did something wrong and shouldn't let it happen again. It's not too far from the second best feedback I received, where a sequel short story was described as "not as (emotionally) painful" as the first one. And I took that personally! Again, that wasn't the target I was aiming for, but the feedback was important so I'd know what to prioritize going forward.

The worst feedback I've ever received was:

Your writing is good; it explores themes. {Protag} is a character, a person, not some - reflection you use, if that makes sense. If she would do something regrettable - or understandable? - that is what she would do. And honestly, I would read it no matter what might happen. Because your writing is worth it, because her story is worth it, and because it makes {Other Character}'s stories stronger. Writing should be about that pursuit of strength, and purity, I think - not to the point it foregoes character or story, but enhances them.

(...) not as a friend, but as a reader, I am saying that you have what it takes to be a professional writer. I would buy your work, without regrets.

My writing mentor was always so kind.

It was definitely an ego boost and felt good in the moment, but it led to an unfortunately long period of complacency. I had been on the right track for a lot of things, but at the same time, I should have sharpened my tools more, so to speak. She went radio silent one day, and nobody ever knew what happened to her. I'd kill, literally, if it meant I got to show her a current story I'm writing in private.

Anyways, I prefer feedback about things that can be improved. There's sometimes I've gotten poor feedback about something the reader misread or misunderstood ("he puffed out his chest?when tf did he get a treasure chest and how do you puff it out???"), but such is life.

There's only one time I got shallow feedback about my writing being awful and the person wanted to "discuss it with me in private". If that instantly set off alarm bells, you probably know where this is going. They just wanted me to click a link and get malware. Always distrust any link in your DMs that you didn't ask for, kids.