writerly ways

[cornerofmadness]

First off, let me say thanks to everyone who gave me their thoughts on description. Even if you didn't think it helped, it really did.

I guess I was thinking a bit today about handling criticism. It's a fact of life, if you write, you're going to be criticized, sometimes with cause, other times not so much so. I've been thinking on how do you handle it. For the most part, I often ignore it and whine to my friends. this is probably the safest bet in the online world. Even if you think the reviewer is a total whackjob or being mean for meanness' sake, never say so on an open forum.

We saw Anne Rice's meltdown on Amazon a few years back and midnightsjane showed us this one this past week. author's big mistake

That said it is hard to NOT say something. Yes author's have to have a thick skin. That is SO much easier said than done and if you don't write you really don't know how it feels. Even if you know someone has a complete misconception (or once in my case confused me wiht another author) saying so publically can be your death. Just look at the review I did of Gwen Cooper's cat book. Trying to explain further my feelings in my own review was like adding fuel to the fire.

So yeah, I guess really it's best to leave reviews alone. So outside of replying to the reviewer what's your favorite way of handling bad reviews.


I did get a scene done in the Pompeii thing but i'm just not sure it'll be enough.