Current Workshop
Give and Take:
The Art of Feedback Workshop
for Editors and Writers
Have you ever labored over giving a writer insightful advice when their story just isn’t working, but struggled to find the words that will actually help? Or are you a writer who’s received frustrating, confusing feedback and thought, Okaaaay . . . and what am I supposed to do with this?
Whether you’re an editor, a writer, or both: The writer–editor relationship is collaborative.
Date: Saturday, October 24, 2026
Time: 1 PM–5 PM Central (Click here for your time zone.)
Location: Zoom
Price: $250 + $9.74 booking fee
For all experience levels and all kinds of stories (prose, games, comics, etc.).
Feedback isn’t just about knowing what’s “wrong” with a story. It’s about communicating in a way that helps the writer—and the story—to move forward.
I’ve been on both sides of this relationship for more than 20 years.
I’ve served as a developmental editor for indie novelists; copyedited Bungie’s Destiny 2 and online courses for Penn State University; and served as founder, managing editor, and fiction editor for Binghamton University’s Harpur Palate. I’ve also worked in a variety of editing roles for video games, academic publishers, authors, fiction anthologies, and literary journals.
But it was my own experiences as a writer that shaped the editor I’ve become.
I’ve worked with amazing editors over the years. They’ve helped me land my work in anthologies like Loosed Upon the World: The Saga Anthology of Climate Fiction, magazines like Nature, and games like the Interview with the Vampire TTRPG and Legendary: Game of Heroes.
But I’ve also worked with editors who never told me what I was doing well. I’ve received advice from people who didn’t understand (or care about) my story’s genre. And I’ve gotten feedback from critiquers who seemed less interested in helping me tell my story and more interested in having me tell their version of it.
None of this makes for a successful writer–editor relationship.
So how do we improve the relationship and avoid these issues?
Learn to Give Feedback That Helps. Learn to Use All Kinds of Feedback (Even When It’s Frustrating).
In this workshop, we’ll look at feedback from both perspectives.
For Editors/Critiquers:
- Fine-tune your skills as an editor/critiquer, whether you’re working on a team, giving feedback to a client, or providing notes to a writer you’ve hired.
- Give specific, actionable feedback without taking over someone else’s story.
- Identify what’s working and focus on more than the negatives.
- Tailor your feedback to the writer, the project, and the goals of the story.
- Communicate difficult observations in ways that invite conversation, rather than defensiveness.
- Build stronger, more collaborative relationships with the writers you work with.
For Writers:
- Get more out of the collaborative process, whether you’re writing for yourself or someone else.
- Make sense of feedback that feels confusing, contradictory, or frustrating.
- Separate useful feedback from feedback that may not serve your story.
- Work with the emotions that inevitably come with having someone critique your work.
- Ask better questions when you don’t understand an editor’s or reader’s suggestions.
- Decide what feedback to use and discard—even when it’s good!
And don’t worry. We’re going to focus on plenty of positives. 🙂
Feedback Is Part of the Creative Process
Sharing writing can be an incredibly vulnerable act. So can telling someone what you think about their work.
Effective feedback is more than comments in the margins. Effective feedback requires curiosity, clarity, problem-solving, empathy, and a good understanding of the relationship between the person giving the feedback and the person receiving it.
Whether you are an experienced editor looking to fine-tune your approach, a writer trying to make better sense of feedback, or someone who often finds themselves in both the writer and editor roles, this workshop will give you practical ways to make the writer–editor relationship more productive.
Come ready to talk about feedback, try out some new approaches, and think about how we can make the storytelling process more collaborative and a lot more useful.
Workshop Features
- Two sessions (one on giving feedback, one on receiving feedback)
- Exercises and brainstorming sessions
- Feedback templates to use with writers and editors
- Real-life examples and illustrations
- Participant Q&A
Technical Requirements
- Access to Zoom (computer is better than phone or tablet)
Accessibility
- Auto-captions via Zoom
- Auto-caption translations via Zoom
- Chat functionality for those who don’t wish to submit questions via voice.
Ticket Availability and Delivery
Tickets are available until Saturday, October 24 at 12:30 PM Central or until they sell out.
You will receive the Zoom link via the email you used to register 30 minutes before the beginning of the workshop.
Refund Policy
Refunds are available up until 1 hour before the workshop.
About the Instructor
Toiya Kristen Finley, PhD, is a writer, editor, game designer, narrative designer, game writer, and editor. She has authored several books on game narrative (Branching Story, Unlocked Dialogue: Designing and Writing Visual Novels; Freelance Video Game Writing: The Life & Business of the Digital Mercenary for Hire; Narrative Tactics for Mobile and Social Games: Pocket-Sized Storytelling; and The Game Narrative Toolbox, coauthored with Jennifer Brandes Hepler, Tobias Heussner, and Ann Lemay). Her fiction has appeared in Nature, Fifth Wednesday Journal, THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF SF STORIES BY WOMEN, and The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy. Her writing for games includes Ritual of Raven, the Interview with the Vampire TTRPG, and Destruction AllStars.
She has edited numerous projects, including the anthology Interdimensions: Stories from the Gen Con Writers’ Symposium, the Our Brilliant Ruin TTRPG, Destiny 2, and Insecure: The Come Up Game.
In 2011, she cofounded the Game Writing Tutorial at GDC Online with Tobias Heussner and served as an instructor in 2011 and 2012. Since then, Toiya has designed and hosted a variety of writing, editing, and game narrative workshops at conferences like the Game Developers Conference, Gen Con’s Writers Symposium, PAX Dev, and East Coast Games Conference.
Drew Hayes, Author of The Utterly Uninteresting and Unadventurous Tales of Fred, the Vampire Accountant
When she suggested something to change, she'd clearly considered not just that a problem existed, but how it might be addressed within the spirit of the game.
Jason Morrill, Indie Game Developer
Ashley Guajardo, Playing Like a Fangirl Coauthor