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Some things are upsetting enough to reach me offline.
The last time I was actually allowed to read a review of my work, the lazy bastard was clearly writing it on his first read through. He started from the position that I did no world building, & switched after a few paragraphs
The last time I was actually allowed to read a review of my work, the lazy bastard was clearly writing it on his first read through. He started from the position that I did no world building, & switched after a few paragraphs
He could have taken the time to go back and edit or delete the wrong statements, but that would be effort! Instead he spent the entire time trying to reduce what I’d done to comparisons with familiar works that were so far off base they were basically sabotage.
I don’t mind criticism. I actually don’t let people who are too positive do the editorial stuff on the team.
Bad, lazy critics hurt everyone though. In that guy’s case, sending people to me expecting a Buffy-like experience is just being mean to them. These books are challenging
Bad, lazy critics hurt everyone though. In that guy’s case, sending people to me expecting a Buffy-like experience is just being mean to them. These books are challenging
My best experience as a writer, under any pen name, was with an editor who took much more time & effort than I had any right to expect as a young writer, & ripped me to SHREDS for what I did wrong. http://malakh.com/blog/editor001/
Thoughtful criticism can help even if it hurts.
Thoughtful criticism can help even if it hurts.
Then there are guys like Saltz, who think it’s up to them to take what people do and… my metaphor here is stomach-turning so I’ll spare you. They want to inject their interpretation and pretend it’s somehow more valid than what the work was created to be
They’re purely harmful.
They’re purely harmful.
It’s right there in his own words, without self-awareness he confessed to not being aware of the artist’s effort, instead slapping a pastiche of his own imagination over it and re-rendering it in his own projections.
That sort of thing makes a lot of us want to quit creating.
That sort of thing makes a lot of us want to quit creating.
If what we “merely” create is of no consequence, why bother putting ourselves through the painful, frustrating, difficult work of trying to render it perfectly? When the end result is that some self-aggrandising parasite will fill it full of larval projections that devour intent?
The attitude that people promote, that art belongs to everyone else but the person who puts their heart into it, is toxic to anyone who actually cares about what they’re doing.
People who promote that idea deserve ONLY the pointless crap it encourages.
People who promote that idea deserve ONLY the pointless crap it encourages.
I’ve gotten mostly positive reviews, back in the comic days— since I refuse to use Amazon, we can’t get book reviews now. I don’t get involved in that.
I care more about the rare little blurbs I get from readers who actually engaged with the work and tried to understand it.
I care more about the rare little blurbs I get from readers who actually engaged with the work and tried to understand it.
A lot of their interpretations are different from mine, but anyone who’s read as far as volume 2 knows how I feel about that. Art is fluid, it’s meant to be.
That’s a far cry from trying to dismiss the work itself, or claim it’s nothing until you came along to interpret it.
That’s a far cry from trying to dismiss the work itself, or claim it’s nothing until you came along to interpret it.
A critic who doesn’t show any respect for the work he lives off of is just drawing a crude self-portrait on everything he’s given. He’s actively interfering with your relationship to the work.
The same goes for people who foist their “headcanon” on you and pretend it’s valid.
The same goes for people who foist their “headcanon” on you and pretend it’s valid.
Telling people what you felt about a work, what thoughts it provoked or what emotions it brought out— that’s of incalculable value. That’s the best way to support art beyond buying it.
The only critic of any value helps you find the art that you can connect with like that.
The only critic of any value helps you find the art that you can connect with like that.
The ideal critic would take the time to look at the book on a much more intense level than most readers. They would be able to express what the art might offer and what might turn readers off about it. I’d love to find something like that out there.
We’ve never needed it more.
We’ve never needed it more.
With an overwhelming sea of information out there, there’s an increasing need for critics to help us connect with readers and creators doing the sort of thing we’re looking for— and avoid some of the more negative experiences.
We don’t need criticism for its own sake. Ever.
We don’t need criticism for its own sake. Ever.
