I’m used to getting bad reviews and hate mail. Close to 20 years in journalism will do that for you. It won’t make you rich, but it’ll certainly help harden you to criticism of your writing. I’ve had my byline published thousands of times, above stories both long and short, dull and exciting, fact and opinion. I’ve written stories I was very proud of (See my Writing section for a few examples), and ones I never wanted to see again after hitting the “Send” button. And, regardless of how I felt about them, there was always a chance I’d receive email or comment from a reader, telling me why whatever I wrote was garbage, and I should crawl into a hole and die.
I’ve been accused of stupidity, laziness, and bias (lots of this) hundreds of times, by many varied people who I learned to ignore unless they had a salient point. And don’t get me wrong. Some people did. I’ve had readers point out factual errors in my articles, and I always appreciate that. It’s a dent to my psyche a bit, especially when it was a simple mistake I shouldn’t have made, but I’d always rather know that and have a chance to correct it than to leave the error in the story and spread misinformation.
I suspect that experience will help me when it comes to reviews, both from beta readers and then the many tens of paid readers I hope to have later, of my book once it’s completed. I try not to take myself too terribly seriously, and I’ve written enough to know all the things I don’t know. I know a good editor is important — I’m hoping to save money by being my own (hopefully good) editor on this project, along with the beta readers, but we’ll see if I’m satisfied with that — and I know there’s not a single thing I’ve ever written that was perfect. I need feedback; I crave it. It’s the only way I’ll get better, and I damn well sure need to get better.
When those reviews start coming in, I’ll be looking for a few key points. If someone’s just spouting off and wants to be angry about something, I can safely ignore those. Same with the people who want to pearl clutch over foul language or sex or whatever. But what’s the worst thing you can say about my story?
The worst thing you, or any reviewer, could say about my fiction writing will be that the characters’ behavior and dialogue seem driven by the preferred narrative rather than the other way around. If this is the case, it tells me I’m not listening to the characters I’ve created and breathed life into, forcing them to behave in a way that serves whichever direction I want the story to go, rather than in the way these people would naturally behave. Dialogue needs to feel real; it needs to be distinctive for each character, and it needs to read like the way these people would actually talk. And plot twists need to be earned, not just inserted into the story for shock value or because that’s what I planned from the outset. If my process of learning about a character shows me he wouldn’t make the decision I had planned for him, it’s the narrative that needs to adjust, not the character.
So, yeah, call me an idiot all you want. Hell, I’ll probably have earned that anyway. But if you really want to get my attention, tell me my characters’ behavior seems forced. That’ll sting me.
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