My most memorable experience is easy to surmise, yet
unrelenting to me while being a writer.
Criticism.
Two four
letter words thrown together with an extra added just to ruin your day.
This has been
both a hard and pleasurable task to handle in my little time as a published
author. I know that with anything that is written, there will always be
dissenting opinions. However, my affluent irritation towards unconstructive
views has always been ironclad and overflowing with more primal instincts than
I will admit.
For this
reason, I have come up with three solutions for bad criticism.
The first is
to learn from it. Analyze all of the talking points that are constructive and
take them to heart. If one person saw a flaw in your writing, other might as
well, and that's something that should be addressed.
If there are
no constructive perspectives given, behead the fucker. That's right. If they
are voicing a negative opinion just to be mean, call them out on it. Respond
to their name calling by asking them to define exactly what they found amiss in
your novel. Force them to be detailed instead of being childish like their
previous commentary was. Others that read this will see that you want to grow
in your writing, but won't take vague shit that any word monkey might sling.
Don't be cruel in your retort, just express that you would like a greater
perspective on their view of your work so that it might further your career and
help your future readers. As far as verbally gutting the bastard, you can leave
that glimmer of anger where it belongs, the small twitch in the corner of your
left eye.
The third
option if there is no way to provoke a detailed and productive iota of thought
from your critic, is to ignore it. You won't be able to please everyone and
childish exchanges read over and over again by future readers of your little
tiff will be turned off to learning more about your overall work. There is such
thing as bad press, it's when your writing platform is bent out of shape by one
or two heated comments you decided to pop in response to a bad review. Don't
let it touch you. That's right, if you don't propogate it, it won't spread
easily to the bulk of your readership. More over, your true fans will be
galvanized by it and believe in you even more. Some of them will be just as
pissed as you were after hearing about it and talk about your book in a good
light more so.
Of course you will let the message get to you. You were the one that is affected the most. The good news is that through ignoring a childish review, you can focus on what actually matters, your writing.
Virgil Allen Moore
http://demonvampire.com
http://www.facebook.com/virgilallenmoore
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0062F60O2
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5231992.Virgil_Allen_Moore
https://twitter.com/#!/demongift/
https://twitter.com/#!/Demon_Vampire
https://twitter.com/#!/Virgil_A_Moore
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