For today’s episode a cold, hard, truth will be
revealed—
Your
writing sucks.
MY writing sucks.
Every single book, manuscript, oddly jotted down bit
of mis-matched Haiku—sucks.
Now the caveat is- it sucks to someone.
I can promise that even the highest grossing,
made-the-author-insanely-rich, best sellers have someone (probably many
someones) who would fling their book across the room in disgust.
Does this mean the book sucks? To them—yeah. Major suckage
of the epic scale. That we should all give up trying to be story tellers? Probably not. (I’ll get to the probably in a minute).
Every once in a while an author hears something bad
about their work. (Stop laughing- yeah, it happens more than every once in a
while, if not, then you’ve got your work sitting in a trunk somewhere under a
large heavy piece of work-out equipment ;)).
But I digress. When said author
gets this bad news the first thought is, “OMG!
I can’t write! I need to go hide
my head in shame!” (Been there done that.).
But the fact is, that is simply an opinion. Now yes, if EVERYONE says the exact same
thing, like your heroine is too stupid to live past page three because she’s
already walked into a house with an ax murderer- by choice- twice in two pages—then
you should probably listen to them.
Other comments should be examined, tossed around,
allowed to breathe like a fine wine—THEN looked at to determine the validity
for your story. There will always be
folks who don’t like what you write—decide if they comments are from that, or
because of a true weakness. But no
matter what you do, your work will suck to someone.
Now back to the whole “stop telling stories” issue. I say ‘probably not’ because if you are a
sensitive soul who can’t rebound (often with lots of chocolate and or alcohol) from
the people who think your work sucks, then maybe you should walk away now. Even
my published VERY published friends get folks who think they suck—it comes with
this job. If you want to still keep writing and showing your work- you’re going
to find some haters. Eat the chocolate,
cry, and move on.
Thanks for coming by- please share your tales of
suckage recovery!
·
OH- I’ll be out of the country starting Sunday
so I have some wonderful guest bloggers the next two weeks. Please make sure to stop by and make them
feel welcome J.
Yep. You're right. I don't believe there's a writer around, who doesn't think they're terrible at one point or another - unless they're totally self-absorbed, I guess.
ReplyDeleteVery true, T! Thanks for coming by and commenting :)
DeleteHaving just returned from a conference where I actually placed my work in the hands of strangers and said, "Tell me what you think." I experienced the entire gamut of responses. WT... Loved it. Where'd the dog come from? Hate your hero's name. Don't read your genre, so I can't give you feed back. By the end of the day, I didn't know what was good or bad or what needed improvement. My writing sucked. Big time. Then my writing buddy, Marie, said shake it off, girl. She was right. If writing is what makes you happy (most of the time) you have to keep doing it, no matter what the naysayers tell you. For every someone who hates it, there will be someone who can't wait to read more. From you!
ReplyDeleteGreat Post, Marie
Sharon
LOL! You have a wise writing buddy, Sharon ;). And I think you're right about the folks who love it--there will be folks who are dying to read it!
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
I TOTALLY needed this! You have no idea how much my writing sucked yesterday. Today, maybe not so much. More chocolate, please. :)
ReplyDeleteI'm glad it helped, Tameri :) And I'm glad that today is a "not sure much" on the suckage rating ;). *hands Tameri some virtual chocolate*
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
Have a great trip Marie!!! :)
ReplyDeleteAnd in the words of my favorite one star review on Goodreads for one of my books: This is not a good book.
Yeesh!
You can never please everyone all the time... Impossible dream! You just hope to please as many as you can.... :) That's what stories are for, right?
*HUGS*
Lisa :)
Thank you, Lisa! OY! What a review! Glad to know that even the really good writers get them too :).
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting- and hugs back at ya!
Your title caught my eye and made me laugh! Yeah taking the "we all suck to someone" from head to heart knowledge is the real struggle. Those kinds of comments just aim for the vulnerability hole in our hearts, but you're exactly right, no one escapes the criticism.
ReplyDeleteJulie Luek
A Thought Grows
Co-host IWSG October
I like the head to heart issue, Julie. It is so true! I just keep hoping that the more I say it, the more I'll believe it :).
DeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
My suckage recovery is still going on - after receiving a one star review on Amazon because the reviewer said she skipped over alot of the book because it was too boring and sappy! Geez... I've got a hellacious pity party going on! But, I understand not everyone is going to love my work and that's okay. Just sucks, that's all. The review sticks out like a freakin beacon everytime I look on Amazon. Oh, the tough skin I've developed! Thanks for your post - made me feel better :)
ReplyDeleteAh, Julie- I am sorry! Have your pity party, then get back out there and read the good reviews! It's hard- that one probably stands out more to you than anyone else. But you have your words out there and folks do like them! That's what matters :). Thanks for coming by and commenting!
DeleteIt just happened to me. I read a scene from my work in progress, as usual, to my Tuesday read and critique class and they got the jokes, nearly on the floor laughing. But my Wednesday group, a little more analytical than the others, not a peep out of them. I felt like a standup comedian who's fallen flat.
ReplyDeleteI told my husband if I die before he does, he needs to carve "Here lies Silly" on my gravestone. I love slapstick, but lots in society today, especially us older folk are more wrapped up in aches and pains than fun. And I'll admit humor is difficult to pull off.
So when I sail my little paper ship of a manuscript out there, I almost expect those major-suckage comments for my offbeat/quirky/mixed genre stuff.
I'm glad you're still sailing forth though Susan! I agree, funny is hard to pull off, but personally my brain is so weird that way I couldn't write without humor if I tried (ok-- in the world of fiction anyway ;))
ReplyDeleteThanks for coming by and commenting!
Marie- trapped at her non-funny day job - can't go on blogger to log in ;)