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What Do YOU Think?

I’m interested in getting your thoughts about stuff I see and hear, quotes I read, stuff that passes as knowledge – and starting an authorey conversation.

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Succeed or fail, your name is on that book. You’d better love it. Every stinking word.

I’m happy to say it’s been my experience that most of you try to write stuff you’d want to read, but not every word. You can admit it.

What are YOUR thoughts on this idea?

 

50 replies on “What Do YOU Think?”

It’s good advice from Chandler, but I always seek advice when it comes to the final draft of a book. On the fourth draft of my second at the moment and sent it out to people whose advice I know is good. So far the feedback has been very helpful.

On the other hand, when it comes to the WordPress blogs I just rant and rave to my heart’s content.

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Like sortiaht, I seek advice too, towards the revision stage. I’ll certainly take any sort of feedback that’s constructive rather than empty, and I make changes according to what works well with what I’m doing. That said, I agree with Chandler in that I really only write what I like. 🙂

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Oh, I think lots of people write stuff they don’t like, trying to catch a trend or be politically correct. I think writing a teen vampire romance is great if you are caught up in that genre, but I think a lot of writers wrote that stuff in hopes of cashing in.

And when that doesn’t work, that’s just gotta be soul crushing.

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It is.

What’s the point of writing a book that you didn’t create, in the hopes it will become popular like the book you are copying it from?

If it becomes popular, all you did was copy. You achieve nothing; The person you copied from is really the benefactor. If it fails, all you did was copy – and fail to boot.

That’s just no way to go.

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Considering we are writing from our perspective, and if what we write is something we don’t like, why on earth would we show it to someone else anyway… Should we choose to share it, we must believe there is a shred of worthiness in what we have written and perhaps we are seeking someone else to point out that fact. just a thought,…

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I like to get feedback. That doesn’t mean I’ll take every suggestion I get -if I did, I’d be constantly changing from a to b to c to a again… see what I mean? Suggestions are that, suggestions; they’re always useful because they make you think, perhaps on aspects you had overlooked; and the receiver is responsible for pondering them and taking a final decision. That might mean changing everything or nothing at all. When in doubt, follow your gut feelings.

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A good topic today. I look at feedback like a ham & egg breakfast. The chicken is involved, but the pig is committed. At some point we have to trust ourselves and go with the passion that started everything in motion.

Right or wrong, we authors must be committed.
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My first book was the novel I wanted to read. I was actually surprised when it started to sell. Isn’t it weird the first time you realise other people, strangers no less, are reading your words?! It’s a feeling I am enjoying getting used to though.

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That’s a weird feeling, and it’s a great feeling knowing that complete strangers are paying money to read words that you wrote.

You know what else is awesome? When they write a review and they say something like it was the most romantic scene ever or the most romantic line ever or how funny it was… Just keeps getting better!

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I belong to the ‘Won’t Be Told’ Category; which is OK because my motivation is writing for the fun of it. Recently, though, there have been bouts of serious maturity sneaking into my approach, which I put down to the influence of being in WP for nearly two years.
Why, even now I have become concerned about the strength of the plot and correct balance between action and narrative in my latest fantasy work… (I’m not used to this)

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Who am I to question Raymond Chandler, but: 1) I don’t always know whether I like something or not until after it’s written (so things I don’t like do get written, but then they’re tabled or scrapped or fed to the gerbils). They may be dreadful, but maybe they were good practice? and 2) It seems to me that there are both overconfident writers who love everything they themselves write, and conversely there are good writers who are timid and not aware of how good their writing is. (Maybe they compare themselves to all the Great Books authors on their bookshelves?). Chandler makes a good point that it is quite precarious taking other people’s advice though. How do you know what “They just don’t know”?

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Ugh, I am so struggling with this right now. I wrote a book for a reader just like me and it turns out, a lot of people aren’t like me and keep complaining. So I keep adjusting. I need another round of beta like I need a hole in the head or carpel tunnel….

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I don’t write the stuff that I read, which can span from horror to literary fiction and thriller/suspense. I read them because they’re different from the things that occupy my mind (my characters and their situations) and definitely more entertaining to me. I write the stuff that matters to me and things that I wonder about – relationships and drama and falling in love, all of them according to me and whatever has influenced me. Reading negative reviews of my books about how I should have written this person this way or had an editor tone down that person tells me more about that reader than myself. They have their issues, but it’s still my book. I wrote it and they didn’t.

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Great point. I read some different genres to learn from the, and about them, and when I did I discovered they had great elements of other genes in them. Suspense had elements of romance. Horror had elements of humor, on and on. I learned a lot. One in particular, a New York Times Best Selling Author I was lucky enough to be a critique partner for, she wrote erotica. I really had no interest in that, since so much of it is poorly written and not erotic at all, but she was a NYTBSA so I figured I could learn something.

Boy, did I.

She had nice romance, good suspense, GREAT tension – and, yes, well written erotic scenes. But that sewed it up for me: great writing (and she is a great writer) can incorporate so much more than “genre.”

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Exactly! I think it’s the book merchandising market that established the genres for catalog reasons more than anything, sort of like boxing stories up according to what they decided sold better. One of my favorite authors is Neil Gaiman and I honestly can’t tell you what genre he fits into because he doesn’t. He writes stories and that’s the bottom line. I grew up reading Shogun, The Alienist, She’s Come Undone, and so many other books (Cider House Rules is a fave, too) and to me, they were stories, not a specific genre. I write about life in general, whether it’s got a romantic suspense plot in its core or one woman’s search for identity that’s all wrapped up in a sweet romance. In the core of it is a story that touches on many aspects of life.

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I think to love every word we write depends on a lot of things – what we are writing, and how far we stretch that love word. If we write thrillers, or we write scenes that are particularly brutal (not in the gruesome way, but in the emotional or social impact way), do we love those words? Probably overthinking this, but I think we can love our books without loving every word in it. 🙂

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I try to view comments and critiques with an open mind. I read them, consider them, and if I agree, I make changes. If not, then I go on. I’ve often looked at comments and said to myself, “They just don’t get it. They don’t understand what I was trying to do.” Those, I disregard. But, if two or more of my readers come back with the same or similar comments, then I really look hard at that part. Maybe I just blew it and it really needs fixed. There is value in sending your work out to editors or alpha readers. We do it to make the works better. But, it won’t do us any good if we don’t heed the advice, or at least contemplate it. I think the key is to be careful who you chose to read your work. Make sure they are someone who gets you and your writing.

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My writing is different – it’s more therapeutic than anything. But because of that, I have to write about THINGS I don’t like. I’m sometimes not happy with how it comes out, but it’s more subject than style.

If that makes any sense. I’m having a very not good day, so who knows….

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What do YOU think? Let me hear from ya.