On the Samhain loops, I’ve noticed a certain tendency in advice given authors who’ve received less-than-glowing reviews, and it’s a tendency I’m not sure is wise.
When the writer expresses the pain of being criticized in a review, most of her fellow authors reply with some variation of “It’s happens. Just ignore it.”
I think ignoring a bad review is the worst thing you can do. Instead, stalk around snarling or cussing or weeping for a moment (I tend to be both a snarler and a cusser) then take a deep breath and give that review a long, careful look to see if you can learn from it.
I’ve received four good reviews on my first romance novel, Shadowed Knight, (and I’ve posted them on my website) but the fifth, the one I’ve read and reread, was from that mistress of the literary slapdown, Mrs. Giggles.
I’d never heard of her before I read it and had no preconceived notions; her critique was my first real feedback on my first attempt at novel-length fiction. I forwarded its URL to my wonderful editor, Linda, with the comment: “Was the book really that bad?”
Linda replied that I’d actually gotten a fairly good critique from Mrs. Giggles, as evidenced by my 80 rating. Well, if that’s true, the lady is also the mistress of the very backhanded compliment.
Still…
I gritted my teeth and read the review again, focusing on the criticisms. (There was a little bit of praise.) Yes, she just might have a point about this….and maybe I should have worked a little harder on that….and what she’d said about this might be something I should think about, too…then I told myself what I far too often have to tell myself: “Okay, you did make some goofs. You did. Learn from them and do better next time.”
I’m not a competitive person. I really don’t care if I score points off someone at some type of arbitrary contest, but I do care about doing things as well as I can. The only way to do that is to learn, whether you’re writing a book or building a house or trying to win gold medals. One of the most valuable ways to learn is to receive absolutely impersonal feedback of some kind.
For a writer, the best feedback comes from readers, not other writers. It may sting, it may smart, but it’s from someone who has no personal interest in you, who is reacting only to what they’ve read.
One of the hardest parts of being a writer is remembering that while you may know everything about the world you mentally create, its characters and their byplay of emotions and actions, a reader can only react to what you actually write.
If you haven’t conveyed all the information that reader needs, or you’ve done it in a clumsy or confusing way, you need to know it. So study those critical reviews. Ask yourself, “Is any of this valid? And if so, what can I learn from it?”
Like most of the world, I’ve spent a bit of the last few weeks watching the Olympics, astonished at what the human mind and body can accomplish. But the games are now over. The flags have been lowered. The music of the anthems has died away, the fireworks have faded to drifting smoke.
The competing is done with. But the learning goes on. And I’m willing to bet that when the celebrations are done and all the congratulations spoken, the wisest of those athletes, from those hung with multiple medals to the most humble back-of-the-pack finishers, will say:
“Okay. Now let’s look at the video. I know what I did right, but now I need to see what I did wrong…so that I can do better next time.”
We don’t have videos. We do have reviewers. Take a long, thoughtful look at what they say…and learn from it.
Jan Alyce Avery
www.janalyceavery.com
Jan,
Amen. A very good blog with some great wisdom.
Denise A. Agnew
http://www.deniseagnew.com
Writers are always learning and evolving. One of the way that happens is through criticism.
I read all my reviews, good and bad, and see what the reviewers liked and didn’t like. It’s just another way to learn and become a better writer.
At the same time, I don’t let the bad reviews get me down. Not everyone will like what I write and that’s okay.
It is the most important thing to look at the criticism as you did, to push past the emotions and to realize a reader is responding to your work. I received my first bad review, and I was thinking, “how could this girl not get it?” I felt like I was bearing my soul, and in the end what I realized is my work isn’t for everyone. I wanted to hide from the world and simply just cry…but then, I would receive an email from another friend of mine, calling my writing a work of art. Henry Miller’s writing was called pornography…and then Mailer has called Miller “One of the greatest American writers this world has ever known.”
We all take those bumps on the chin, and sometimes there are people that attack everything written. However, in the process of creation, you must feel good about what is created, it is from within. Yes, take out the emotion, look at the honorable parts of where things can be improved, but there should be no fear in creation…even Stephen King stated, “If I worried about what other people thought, I would have never published a single word.” Now there is a writer that people either love or hate. Most people think he wrote just gore, but he wrote the wonderful, “Green Mile” and “The Shawshank Redemption”…and to be honest there were a couple of his works, I would have used for kindling. We all fall down, but it is rises out of those ashes that make us better writers.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
Marilyn Campiz
Writer/Author