The Family Girl Blogs (aka "The New Working Girl Blogs") Blog #27: Of Shakespeare and Private Messages To see all of Bobbie's Family Girl Blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/28818/family-girl-blogs

I got a pleasant private message early this morning, which I read before my usual early Saturday morning jog (sometimes bicycle ride), from someone named Kate, and she wanted to talk about some of the stuff I wrote.

Seems that she spotted an error in one of my stories, specifically, Danny Part 6.   

There was a quote there which I used, which went, "I love thee, I love but thee, with a love that shall not die  till the sun grows cold and the stars are old."

A beautiful quote, but, in the story, I said that it was from Shakespeare.   Kate had pointed out that it was actually from a poem by Bayard Taylor called "Bedouin Song."   

I did some research and it was true.   It was by Taylor and not Shakespeare.   Taylor was an American poet who lived in the eighteen hundreds., and wrote his poem two hundred years after Shakespeare.

But I also found out that my mistake wasn't unique (thank goodness) and that a lot of others made the same mistake.   Which bucked me up a bit.   Another quote that is regularly attributed mistakenly to Shakespeare were the lines,  "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" et cetera.   This was actually from sonnet number 43 from a 44-sonnet piece from 1850, called "Sonnets from the Portuguese" by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

I truly appreciated Kate's considerateness (or is it "consideration") for correcting me privately, but I could not help but think of others who do the same thing - correct the writers, but as public comments instead.  

In my last story, I felt sorely picked on when every other public comment seemed to be a correction.   There was one particular comment that I thought was particularly brutal.   It was a fairly long comment - twelve paragraphs long, and each paragraph was about how the commenter did not quite agree... or how it was odd that... or how she can't believe that...

Still others' posts were more, ummm, quantifiable, and talked about specific errors about the technology I used in the story.   At least those were easier to field.

The one thing I learned here was that readers feel a direct connection to the stories they like, and as such feel very proprietary about them, and feel that they have the right to make demands of the writer, to correct, possibly to improve, the story they so like.   That's okay by me.   But I just don't understand why they have to do so publicly.   I wish that they would do so in a private way, instead of in public.

Anyway, I guess I am considering discontinuing my latest story now.   Or maybe I just need time for my wounded pride to recover.   I don't know yet.

Those who haven't written much do not really know how much of themselves writers put into their work, nor do they know how difficult it is to write stories, and therefore how badly negative commennts or corrections can hurt, even though they couch them in polite words (At least that is one thing I am glad about here in BCTS - that Erin will not allow obviously negative or rude posts and comments.)

So, my apologies to The Bard, and a big thank you to Considerate Kate.   I will quote Shakespeare again: "I can no other answer make, but, thanks, and thanks."

An this time, I'm sure this is really Shakespeare.

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