You suffer through putting your heart into digital form for everyone to see by posting a story.
A day later you check the comments and kudos.
Whoa -- not everyone loves it. In fact, a couple of people say things that leave you wondering if you have any personal value.
What should you do about it?
A while back I asked for help finding software for writing a script.
I poured myself into what will become a seven-minute film.
Two days ago I met with the director and assistant director. The assistant director played the female card on me. "You wouldn't understand why your script is so offensive because you're not a woman." I wanted to cry on so many levels. I rarely present as a woman outside of my home and hadn't to either of these two but I truly believe I have a feminine soul.
As I write this I'm waiting for my nails to dry. For the third day in-a-row I'm dressed from the skin out in feminine clothing. Today I selected a dress. My spouse wears a dress much less frequently than I do.
Then she added, "You're going to need to edit the script before I start casting. I wouldn't let my daughter near a play with such sexual abuse undertones."
How she found "sexual abuse" in the script is beyond me. I suppose if you squinted just right and stood on your head you might. . ..
Nonetheless, I did a re-write to her specifications. She's experienced and probably is sensitive to certain issues for whatever reason. It didn't harm the story -- so I didn't care.
I'll admit I first reacted by thinking, "Screw this. This is a volunteer effort for which I'm not getting paid. If she's so fucking brilliant why didn't she write a script!" But somehow I found a bit of maturity and decided to continue with the project.
At the end of our meeting, she said, "I was so worried about this meeting. I don't know you, but understand that this is your script and had prepared myself for a volcanic reaction. It's so hard to criticize face-to-face."
I thought of how easy it is to criticize someone online. People say things they NEVER would say if they knew you or were looking you in the eyes.
When confronted by a negative review, it's hard to remember it isn't about you. First off, the person might just be a troll, who gets off being a jerk. When I get a bad review on Amazon I'll check other reviews by that person. Often, that person is mad at the world.
Then I try to remember that some people think a three-star review is a compliment because they didn't give you a one- or two-star review -- instead of a four- or five-star review that is more the norm.
For the fun of it, I checked out what people thought of A Tale of Two Cities, the Dickens classic. Four percent of those reviewing gave it one star.
Some of the comments:
I've bought this book and looked at it more than once but I've failed to read it.
Blah
Very slow read, classic.
I fall asleep every time I try to read it.
The first page and the last four chapters are the best part of the novel. The rest is very slow and the characters are not fleshed out enough to care about any of them until the end.
I could never appreciate classics fully and I think because the really, REALLY, long sentences that span more than a page on my kindle deter me from approaching them. Get my drift?
I love reading many of the classics. This wasn't one of them. Dickens was paid by the word. It is evident in the tale. It was chosen by my book club to read; yet it felt much more like an assignment. I finally downloaded the audible version and found even then I listened with only half an ear. That's how I got through it.
Horrible. Could not get into it. Now I remember why I didn't like English is Highschool. Good concept, but don't understand how it's good enough to be a classic.
I had to read this in high school. I hated it. I read it again and my thoughts didn't change. This is supposed to be a great work of art. I still don't get it.
Too slow at times. But I think that it is a personal choice with books
This was definitely not my favorite book from Charles Dickens. In fact, I found it one of the most boring books I have read in a long time. It was even worse than reading about people sitting around gossiping like in a Jane Austen novel. People talked. They did stuff. People died. Others lived. The end. I don't care.
It may be considered a classic, but there's some atrocious writing in this book. If I could go back in time, I would try to introduce Charles Dickens to the concept of the period -- you know, so he could end a sentence every so often. Some of his sentences run on for pages, making this book about as easy a read as a dense legal contract. It occasionally borders on incoherence.. I still like the story, though, and the occasional clever turn of a phrase, but I wish someone actually took the time to edit this book when it was first written.
Too Wordy, makes Tolkien look like a short story writer.
How do you review a classic? It's over fifty years since I first read Dicken's tale of the
French Revolution.. To enjoy it you need lots of patience and plenty of time. I have neither. I found the dialogue stilted, long winded, verbose..
Did people really talk to each other like that? The story line is great, characters well fleshed out' Appropriately, it's very, very Victorian, hardly likely to appear on any top selling book list today.
Obviously, these reviews reveal more about the reviewer than they do the story itself. Dickens is a wonderful writer who taught us all much more than we probably realize about the art of putting words on paper.
And then - - - every once in a while my stories posted on Big Closet receive a comment that is so insightful that my heart grows three times and I take the lesson forward for my next effort. Those are the moments we writers live for and why comments mean so much.
You're probably not as good a writer as Dickens. (I know I'm stretching it to even compare myself to him. If he's a ten, I'm a one.) If Dickens can receive the above comments, don't let it bother you when your work gets panned.
Cherish the positive remarks. Learn from the others. Filter everything through "It's not about me!"
Good luck to everyone who writes or comments!
Jill
Comments
your essay
I enjoyed reading your blog. It hit home on many levels. I enjoyed the way you ended your piece by quoting the reviews for Dickens.
I just got my first flaming for "Copy. Cure. a Nanotechnology adventure". It was a one-star review that was more than hostile. But, I read it and two other three-star constructive criticisms and took them to heart. I believe when someone takes the time to write, they also have my best interests in mind. I'm about half-way through rewriting "Copy. Cure." and it will be my second edition. The nicest thing is that Amazon makes the new edition available to all who have purchased the first edition.
I didn't get these kinds of reviews for "Wildcats" so I assume I could have done better. My self-esteem is not dependent on reviews. I've failed plenty of times in my life.
But, thanks. I know it's hard writing in a bubble. We need to let in some good light and fresh air. I love posting here on BigCloset for just that reason. You get good feedback that will only improve the next edition you write.
Wildcats
You're an excellent storyteller. I've read all three Wildcats and was enthralled.
I would recommend Wildcats as "five-star" reading, even if you're not Dickens.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
"Amazon makes the new edition available"
Yeah, right. Well, sort of.
Twice now, I have seen an American author accidentally publish a pre-release version of their new book on Kindle in place of the ready-for-release version they thought they were uploading. In both cases I contacted the author and let them know and they updated it with the correct version. Only I never saw the updated version. By the way, I live in Canada and I deal with Amazon.ca, not Amazon.com.
It turns out that when an author updates their Kindle book at Amazon.com that it only does it for Amazon.com customers. Amazon.com customers that have already bought the book are given the option of updating it. The author is told that it is updated for all Amazon sites, but it isn't. (I am not clear on whether or not it is updated for new customers on foreign sites. I have heard both yes and know answers from various Kindle telephone support teams. It is definitely NOT updated for foreign customers that have already purchased or borrowed the book before the author updated it.)
It turns out that in order to get your book updated on the foreign Amazon sites, the author must do the following. First they must update the book at Amazon.com using the web site. Then they must phone KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) support at Amazon.com and get them to forward the call to KDP support at Amazon.ca to ask them (KDP telephone support in Canada) to manually update the book for BOTH existing and new customers in Canada and then to MANUALLY CHECK the time stamps on the book for both the Canadian existing customers and Canadian new customers to make sure the update was successful.
Oh, yes. A few notes.
Firstly. If the KDP telephone support people in the States say that your book has been updated for every country, don't believe them. It seems that KDP telephone support people in the states believe this is true but it isn't. Furthermore they can't tell whether or not the problem exists nor can they fix it. All they can do is confirm that it was updated for the United States (i.e. Amazon.com) and then forward your telephone call to the Canadian KDP support team.
Secondly. You probably have to do this for every Amazon site, i.e. for Amazon.ca, for Amazon.co.uk, etc.
Thirdly, you still can't be sure it was updated until you have independent confirmation from both pre-update customers and new customers in each country that they see the updated version of the book by having them look at specific text in the supposedly updated book where you changed it.
The first time I had this happen I never did see the updated book. The author cranks out one or two books a month and it just wasn't worth her time to track down the problem. The second time the American author had to make a number of calls to KDP (i.e. author) telephone support in the United States interleaved with the Canadian customer (me) making a number of calls to Kindle Unlimted (i.e. customer) telephone support in Canada. We were both being told over and over that the problem was fixed and that the updated book would appear soon (i.e. within a day or two). Only it wasn't getting updated. The author and I were comparing notes.
Eventually on my last call to the Canadian customer support people they transferred me to the American customer support people who eventually transferred me back to the Canadian customer support people, who then looked at the time stamps on the current versions of the books and realized that they weren't updated for Canada. (They said there were two different new versions of the book, one for people purchasing it for the first time and one for people that already own it and updated to the new version. I don't believe this. I suspect that what they probably meant to say is that there were two version of the book. The old one for pre-existing customers who hadn't updated it and one for new customers and for old customers who have updated it.) This support team then had me contact the American author and have her phone KDP (author) support the States and have them then transfer the call to KDP (author) support in Canada to request that the book be updated. This must have worked, because a few hours later it worked.
Fun, huh? But it was worth it. It was an awesome book. And it was even better when two and a half chapters of it didn't consist of brief author notes. Gotta love Murphy. And this author. She and her books are so worth it.
Revision vs. 2nd edition?
Sometimes even customers in the US don't get the updated book. It's common in non-fiction for a 2nd edition to *not* be a free update to purchasers of the 1st edition. I believe there might be something the author/publisher has to do to tell KDP that you are putting up a revision (which should be distributed to all previous purchasers) vs. a 2nd edition which will be treated as a new book.
Kris
{I leave a trail of Kudos as I browse the site. Be careful where you step!}
I know I'm chamging the subject, but
Leslie, I really liked the original Copy, Cure, but the kindle version is even better. And "Wildcats" is NOT a failure. It was so good, I read it on FM and BC. How any one could give it bad ratings is beyond me. Jessica Jade, "Metamorphosis" is coming along great.
Karen
A Tale of Two Cities
LOL. I never have gotten through that book. It's not the book's fault, at least I don't think so. But my reading the book seems to cause disasters.
Back in high school, it was the reading assignment when I came down with bronchitis and ended up in an oxygen tent for two weeks. Twelve years later, I owned a used book store and decided to try to read the book again since a copy had come in. The whole town promptly got hit by a hurricane—in the California desert!
Over the years I have occasionally tried again to read it and have fortunately lost the damn book before getting far enough to trigger a meteor strike or something. Then there was two years ago when I thought it might do for some summer reading....
I love Dickens but it's better that I don't read A Tale of Two Cities. :)
Love the points you make in the above essay, Angela. :)
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Good Luck
May all of your "worst of times" be behind you -- and all your "best of times" be ahead.
Jill
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Have I ever shared my own views on Dickens with you?
I can't stand him, and it has nothing to do with him being a bad wordsmith. As a matter of fact, I dislike Dickens for the same reason I dislike another very well-respected author, R.A. Salvatore: because I hate seeing what they do to their characters.
I've read all the way through one Dickens book, A Christmas Carol, and tried to read two others, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist. In the latter two cases I couldn't help but feel an overwhelming sense of distaste for the massive amounts of suffering he piled on the characters over and over, to the point that any time I try to read a book nowadays and see that kind of thing happening -- a character juuuuust start to get something good going when it's all sent crashing down around their ears over and over and over again -- I call it an Oliver Twist.
Hence why I don't care for his work. There are other authors, ones I quite like otherwise (like Sherrilyn Kennyon) who I've abandoned books by for the same reason. It just seems in Dickens' case, and Salvatore's as well, that it's something they relied upon a bit too often for me to find them to my taste. In both cases they're fantastic descriptive writers, but I can't enjoy their style when I spend every second waiting for the other shoe to drop.
*hugs*
Melanie E.
Understand the times and what he was trying to do.
Understand that Dickens was trying to show the plight of those less fortunate. A Christmas Carol was meant to show how the rich were using the poor with their not being able to take the holidays off. Yes, Christmas at that time was only give if the boss was benevolent to do so. And rarely did so.
Also Dickens himself was a sufferer in that he was abandoned as a youth due to his father being placed in a Debtors prison. This had a far great impact on his writings. Yes he was cruel in what many would think of in this day and age, but he was attempting to show a world that cared little for those suffering just as Mark Twain was doing across the pond.
If his characters touched a nerve than it shows how it has affected you over his works whereas many writers will 'entertain' but are soon replaced by others.
No writer is perfect, but many have left their mark more than others. Personally there are times I can't tolerate Stanley Kubrick. Why? Because he imposed his own personal views for the sake of cinematography claiming it was for the better. It's all based on interpretations. Many of my 'once' hero's have fallen to the wayside once I get past the rose glasses. Some I'm willing to forgive whereas others no so much.
Personally I have enjoyed Dickens works for I take it in the context it was written and laugh at some of the absurdness just like the old gangster movies that can't hold their weight now. True for the period but not all for today.
I don’t know
Tales of Amazon working conditions are pretty similar. Dickens tells of timeless human problems. Beware of ignorance? Check, look where it has gotten us today in the US. Worst yet, it is willful ignorance.
I can fully understand the point behind his writing,
but that doesn't mean I'm going to make myself sit through it either.
I've never understood the human tendency toward schadenfreude, and unfortunately that's what the idea of enjoying Dickens' work feels like to me. I already know the world is a sadistic, unforgiving place populated mostly by a-holes who would rather kick their own grandmothers down a set of stairs than take responsibility for anything, and that's specifically why I don't enjoy reading books that emphasize that, because if I can see the same thing looking out my own window or at my own life then why would I want it in materials that are supposed to be enjoyable?
I respect him, I really do. I respect his storytelling skill, and his vision. The same for Salvatore. Heck, the same for a great many authors here as well whose work I'll never read no matter how much it's recommended to me or how good they might be. It really isn't about the quality of the writing; it's about the qualities of the story, and I simply fail to find them to be ones that I appreciate. That's less a commentary on the author or his work than it is my tastes and desires as a reader.
Melanie E.
"It was the worst of books, It was the worst of books..."
I actually never read it so I wouldn't know.
You made some great points here about maintaining a healthy perspective toward negative reviews and criticism in general, Jill, and I got a kick out of some of the reviews of the Dickens novel. It made me wonder what kind of clueless reviews other classic tomes might get:
The title LES MISERABLES should of warned me. Reminds me of another Yugo I bought years ago- What a lemon!!
What the hell was this Lewis Carrol smoking?? ALICE IN WONDERLAND made absolutely no sense!
I couldn't relate to Camus' THE STRANGER at all. All he did was complain about his alienation like some emo teenager and needs to get over himself!
Couldn't get past page 30 of SLAUGHTERHOUSE 5. It might've been OK if the guy knew how to tell a straightforward story, but it kept jumping around all over the place.
The only IDIOT is you if you buy this snoozefest by Dostoevsky.
I found MOBY DICK very hard to masturbate to. Don't call us, Ishmael; We'll call you...
etc, etc, etc...
Meh; this probably couldve been funnier with a little work + leaving out the less clever ones
but enough fooling around, I'll let someone else come up with some actually funny
fake reviews if they want to, I gotta get back to my real writing.
~Ronni
What borders on pure insanity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
Writing reviews
I read a LOT of Kindle books in a year. And I used to try to post reviews for most of them. Even if they were practically one liners like "I liked the book.". Unfortunately my list of books that were read but not reviewed yet got longer and longer and eventually I gave up on reviewing most of them. I regret this, as I know how important EVERY SINGLE REVIEW is to authors who publish on Kindle. These days I settle for just reviewing the books I like the most, and my to-review list is more manageable but still long.
As someone writing a quick review I was often frustrated about what to say and not say. For instance I used to comment on the editing quality but eventually stopped. I didn't want to stop people from reading an otherwise good book just because the editing quality wasn't up to the standards of a large printed book publishing house. And I try to avoid pointing out that something is not perfect because what people then "hear" is that something is wrong.
Instead, I mostly choose to talk about how the book made me feel. Did I really enjoy reading it? Would I consider reading it again? How many times have I already reread it? And in cases like these, do I recommend most of the authors other books as well? And if I can't say something particularly positive about the book there is always "I liked the book." And for the books I am only so-so on, they usually get buried in my list of not-reviewed-yet books.
And then there is the occasional review I have written that goes on for paragraphs and paragraphs like the ones I wrote for Daring Diane's Cheerleader series. And the one I thought I wrote for Leslie Moore's Wildcats series. (DId I mention I'm not that good at getting those reviews written. I just checked and it's in my to-review list and I have bolded it. And, oh yes, my list says I haven't written a review yet for Zoe Taylor's Cheer's The Thing either. Also written in bold. Sigh. I really am procrastinating.)
By the way, I really liked this essay on reviewing from the author's point of view.
On Dickens
Readers of 19th century literature have to realize that books then were about the only mass entertainment. People then wanted all the description in books, there were no movies or television to numbly watch. What l love most about Dickens is his ability to create these incredible characters: Tiny Tim, Uriah Heep, Scrooge, Mrs. Haversham, Pegotty. The ancillary characters make his stories come alive.
Dawn
Dickens reviews
I haven't read Tale of Two Cities, and I don't plan to. The only book of Dickens I read was Great Expectations, which was required in my sophomore year in high school (1963 - 1964). Pretty much any of the reviews above would equally apply to Great Expectations as well. I disliked it so much that I have avoided reading any of his works since. However, when made into a movie, you avoid the tedious sentences and just get the story. All the explanations as to why he wrote that way still don't make for interesting reading!
A tale of two views
Sorry for the pun. A tale of two cities is not his best work by a long long way and yes for a lot of people it is hard going. A lot of his other more popular works are far easier to read.
That is my point.
If you set out to please all of the people all of the time you end up with bland pap. Much like what Hollywood dishes out on a daily basis. The more people like it, the more bums on seats and the more money that the film will lose (according to Hollywood Accounting Rules).
Everyone goes home happy apart from the TaxMan but no one wants him to be happy now do they?
Sometime we all write stories that won't please most of the people. Often they never get to see the light of day on a site like this. The lack of kudos and comments can hurt you if you are not prepared for it.
That is the risk we as authors we all take. Some you win and some you lose.
We also all have our 'ups and downs'. How many times have you spent hours carefully crafting a scene only to find that you have written yourself into a corner so you have to go back and delete hours or even days of work.
Even the most creative and brilliant designers/engineers/scientists etc have their off days.
The thing that we humans are mostly very good at is hiding those days and also not getting mad when a few bad reviews comes our way.
All part of the rich tapestry of life.
and everything I've said above still does not make TOTC an easy read. My favourite is Dombey & Son. To quote from a Guardian review of it.
"What was a girl to Dombey and Son!" Despite its intransigently masculine title, Dombey and Son is the one Dickens novel apart from Bleak House with a heroine, Florence Dombey. And Florence, made courageous by the death of her mother and the neglect of her proud, rich father, is an altogether sprightlier protagonist than dutiful, grateful Esther Summerson.
Some of us roll with the punches and others wear their heart on their sleeves.
And we as a species in our need for praise far too often say YES when we should have said a firm NO. perhaps the learning from the film script should be that 'I should say NO more often'.
Keep your chin up old girl and keep writing and commenting.
Samantha
Negative comments
Jill, if Dickens was alive today, he'd be selling newspapers. I have the full set of his books, "Christmas Carol" is the only one I finished. I used to read 3-5 books a week, and Took 3 days just to read Tolkien.
Anonymous negative comments give some people a sense of power, and a break from torturing cats.
Karen
Personal Taste
"Everybody" loved Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code and it was a huge hit commercially. Personally, I thought it was one of the worst-written books I have ever read...and, yes, I read it all the way through. It was a reasonable story utterly spoiled for me by the atrocious writing. That's my opinion. The movie was a little better because it didn't have the awful dialogue.
Similarly, everybody raves about John Le Carre, who I find incredibly boring because nothing ever happens for the first 200 pages except so-called character development. On the other hand a Len Deighton story combines the action with the exposition of his characters in the first 20 or so pages and I cannot put one of his books down.
My point is that one's personal taste largely determines whether you like a book or not. What I cannot fathom is why people bother to write totally negative reviews of something they don't like and they do so without considering the milieu in which the story was written (e.g. Dickens). Lots of people say they don't like Shakespeare but actually haven't read his stories because of preconceived prejudice.
I was lucky enough to have a brilliant English Literature teacher who actually explained the meanings and intent of writers like Shakespeare, Dickens, Victor Hugo and even H.G. Wells and Jules Verne and had us reading Tolkien when he was first published. If you have been educated to appreciate good stories, well written, you will read them with enjoyment for the rest of your life.
Even if a writer has a few literary shortcomings you should still be able to enjoy their offerings if the story is to your liking, but if you don't like the story just stop reading and don't spoil it for others by giving negative opinions other than in private if you are so inclined, although in my book that makes you some kind of troll, because the author has generally poured their heart and soul into their work, especially if they are offering it for free on a site like this one.
Good and bad writing
Bad writing can put people off of literature for good.
What got me interested in writing was the set book we had in my last year at school ('68-'69). It was a collection of short stories by DH Lawrence.
In some of those short tales the characters really came alive. There was one about a female 'clippy' (Ticket seller and collector) on a Tram line that went to a Pithead in the Nottinghamshire Coalfield. It stayed with me for a long time.
In short stories, the author has to get the 'hook' in quite early on. In a Novel you can take your time and develop the characters but some take far too long. But you have to keep the reader at least half interested or you will lose them,
Perhaps this is why I've never managed to write a full length novel.
sigh. Oh well. That's life.
Samantha
Honest criticism is hardly being "some kind of troll" :)
Admittedly, such things do need to be tempered by compassion and understanding, but the best authors get where they are by taking such criticism and either embracing it or ignoring it as necessary to create the works they want to be known for.
I dislike Dickens for completely subjective reasons, and while I can use these to explain why I dislike his work it is important both for me and for fans of his to recognize that, being subjective, these reasons in no way detract from the actual quality of the work itself. It's kind of like deciding not to buy a car because it's the wrong color blue; it may be the greatest car in the world, but your subjective tastes nevertheless make it unpalatable. Subjective issues would hardly count as a literary shortcoming: they are simply differences in taste.
Real literary shortcomings do exist though.
Objective criticism is something that authors should be much more willing to embrace. There are a great number of well-liked authors who post to BCTS regularly who I simply cannot read, and it's due to the objectively poor quality of their writing, whether that be syntax, spelling, or both. Such things are not an issue because of one person's taste, but because of the baselines we set for legibility of content, and can hinder an author's reach with their story no matter how interesting the characters or events may be. A dedicated reader may be willing to sift through the chaff to piece together what the author is trying to say, but in doing so you're, in my (subjective) opinion, changing the very nature of the author's work by doing so. Clarity is important in literature because there should be limits on the liberties a reader can take in regards to interpreting what an author is trying to say, because without said clarity you'll end up with interpretations that are in some ways completely backwards from the original works or, in BCTS's case, much too forgiving.
Art cannot exist without criticism, because without criticism no artist or creator would have reason to grow or improve. It's one thing to ignore someone who dislikes what you do because it isn't for them; it's another for someone to feel they can't speak up because they want to see you create better work. In Dickens' case, you can only really level subjective criticism at him because his work is, for the time, very very well written. For Dan Brown, there is a LOT of structural error you can point out to criticize him for, not the least of which is his horrid chapter structuring. Recognizing the difference between such criticisms is necessary both to be a good author and a good reader.
You do an author more harm by not speaking up when you see a problem in their work than you do by criticizing them, because in doing so you deny them the information they need to grow and improve.
Melanie E.