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LM: #333: The three-headed feedback monster
Deep within the bowels of Earth lives a creature.
He thrives off creators’ unfinished projects.
He eats experimental cupcakes and drinks neglected home brew. He wears half-sewn dresses, pastes sketches of never-built sneakers to his feet, and adorns himself with jewelry of 3D-printed prototypes.
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His entertainment consists of watching unedited A-roll of would-be YouTube videos, reading single-act screenplays, and listening to fifteen-second guitar riffs recorded on iPhones.
His cave walls are covered with abandoned sketches and unfinished paintings. From the stalactites of his ceiling hang mobiles of somewhat-assembled model cars and airplanes. His floors are covered with a rug of crocheted potholders and half-knitted onesies.
As Cro-Magnon man chased gazelles into exhaustion, this monster’s method of hunting is to drive creators into endless revisions. After repeated cycles of second-guessing and self-doubt, the bewildered creator collapses. By the time they come-to, their abandoned project is gone.
This monster is uniquely adapted to confusing the hell out of creators, because he has three heads. Disguised as friends and family, internet commenters and reviewers, even hijacking the inner dialogues of creators themselves, the three-headed feedback monster can sing praises, shout vituperations, and ignore the creator’s work while looking at his phone, all at the same time.
The three-headed feedback monster is mythical, but when you put your work into the world, you will be convinced the monster is real.
- Some feedback will seem it’s to different works entirely – one person thinks your mystery novel is a rip-off of Sherlock Holmes, while another calls it “refreshingly original.”
- Some interpret differently the exact same things – one person loves how your lo-fi production quality sounds “raw,” while another dismisses it as “amateur.”
- Some will invent things about your work that simply aren’t true. Liz Gilbert said a reader was inspired to leave an abusive marriage, by a part in her book where she did the same – never mind Gilbert didn’t mention nor experience domestic abuse.
The feedback you get on your work will be unreliable, contradictory, and confusing.
You can’t listen to all of it – unless you want to make another donation to the feedback monster.
Book: The Judgement of Paris (Amazon) is Ross King’s dramatic telling of the rise of Impressionism.
Cool: Legentibus is an app that teaches you Latin with text and audio.
Best,
David
P.S. If you prefer, Love Mondays is now also available on Substack.
