"Until people are asking the right question, they're not ready to hear the answer." -Vivian
COMMUNITY SPACES: THINGS CHANGE
For Tressie M C and Roxane G, social media sites like Twitter used to be a space for creative community and trying out ideas. Now that they both have a much larger scale of followers and their accounts have much bigger reach, social media is less useful for creative community.
Alternatives: Group chats, etc., for creative community. (Note to myself: options to use more -- text chains, Slack groups, recurring group calls/Zooms, schedule recurring in-person meetups)
Social media still has uses for Tressie and Roxane
promoting colleagues and students
disseminating information
exposure to lively communities, like #BlackTwitter
MENTORING
As a mentor, you won't fit everyone. There are different styles, needs, and fits.
To illustrate the deep truth of this idea, Tressie quotes Maya Angelou: "My mother was a better mother to an older child."
Discipline as a mentor
Sacrifice your own ego to give mentees feedback based on what they are trying to do, not what you think they should be doing.
Tressie: "Their risk, their glory."
Tressie quoting Vivian: "Until people are asking the right question, they're not ready to hear the answer."
FEEDBACK
Seeking feedback
Smart generalists are the best readers for early work
Identifying readers for your work: Ask, "Who are the people invested in making this work better?"
Be specific about the kind of feedback you want
See below for advice on interpreting feedback
Giving feedback
"Start over" is low-quality feedback
Tressie's philosophy: People who offer feedback that is smaller in scope have paid more attention.
Small tweaks are specific
Vet your draft feedback with this question: "Is this advice specific to what the writer is trying to do?" (You as a writer should interpret feedback through the same lens.)
Tressie's style: At the start of the feedback, offers 2-3 sentences along these lines: "This is what I hear you doing.... Based on this [understanding],...[end with proposed tweaks]
There is a feedback sheet on Tressie's website that is not prominently indexed so you'll have to dig around to find it (note: I couldn't find it after about 5 minutes of trying various searches and guessing at weblinks. If you find it, please comment on Twitter and tag me.)