[...] Two points about the system as a whole:
- It seems to consider the fact that people can (and do) fill several of these roles as an invariant(?) characteristic of the (pair of) person(s). I would posit that it can change with time (as usual for personal relations, I suppose) as well as context (like I'm particularly likely to comment/oppose where the work in question dives into technological specifics).
[...] a single person can fill any or all of these roles in their feedback (possibly excepting Referents; I’ll explain why when we get there), either simultaneously or over time.
Obviously I didn't make the bolded part clear enough; I thought that I'd said what you're saying here by saying that.
[...] Two points about the system as a whole:
- Having that said, I'm not sure why these categories, however loose they may be in practice, would only apply to relations between writers ... (though I'm not at all a friend of stuffing everyone into drawers, Myers-Briggs style)
I never said they wouldn't; I'm only talking about the application to the creative process because that's what the book was about. The book itself was descriptive rather than prescriptive, insofar as I can tell: more like a "here's something interesting I've noticed and maybe knowing it'll help you" than a "this is what is and must always be!" As this is the "Writer's Corner", I thought I'd drop this in for people to mull over; thank you for mulling it over.