Every Writer Has a Story * Rethinking Feedback * What is Feedback? * EQ * Sarah Stewart Taylor: "Wow! This could be my job." * Getting Feedback * Is It You . or Is It Them? * Processing Feedback * Samina Ali: "I would have sold my soul." * Twenty-Two Years * Editing Your Editor * Ernest Hebert: "I wanted writing to be easy for me and it wasn't." * Feedback Hotlines * "Danger, Danger, Will Robinson!" * Jennifer Crusie: "A story is a collaboration between a writer and a reader." * The Club * Waiting for Feedback * Archer Mayor: "Emotion is a blinding force." * The Value of Toxic Feedback * Giving Feedback * Preventing Mental Meltdowns * The Power of Positive Feedback * Grace Paley: "My nature wasn't ambitious enough to go ahead on my own." * A Right Way and a Wrong Way * Can You Please Be More Specific! * Khaled Hosseini: "Even if the book is good, no one is going to want to publish it.

" * The Moment of Truth * Common Human Decency * Don (D. B.) Johnson: "My best advice is to marry well." * Editorial Biases * Get That Look Off Your Face * Ted Kooser: "We all serve communities." * Small Miracles * In the Company of Writers * Hey, Let's Put On a Workshop! * How to Have a Good Group Discussion * Gregory Maguire: "I don't revise in an architectural way." * Who's in Charge? * The Top Ten Rules of a Successful Writing Group * Julia Alvarez: "My dream of becoming a writer was a fool's dream." * Meet the World's Worst Workshop * Publishing * Jodi Picoult: "I call our relationship my second marriage." * Can Creative Writing Be Taught? * Crystal Wilkinson: "Processing feedback has to be a meditation.

" * In Appreciation of Bad Writing * Epilogue: Feedback and the Real World * Acknowledgments * About the Author.