Riding the Review Rollercoaster
(Cross-posted from Poe's Deadly Daughters)
Now, at last, I understand my urge to publish novels.
It’s not a deep-seated desire to communicate. It’s not a need to purge my imagination of all those crazy made-up people who keep running around in their made-up world, doing shocking things. It’s not, heaven knows, a belief that publication will make me rich and famous. (I was never naive enough to believe that.)
No, it’s masochism.
I just love putting myself at the mercy of strangers. I take a perverse pleasure in releasing my creative children into the world and waiting, wide-eyed and eager, for the world to shatter my fragile writerly ego with those awful-and-wonderful things called reviews.
As my husband and friends never tire of pointing out, I can ignore reams of praise if I find a single disapproving sentence buried within. So what if the reviewer loved the characters, found the setting evocative, enjoyed the plot right to the end? None of that counts. What counts is that she thought some of my phrasing was... gulp... clunky.
Despair! I will never write again. I will toss the computer out with the trash because I am clearly unworthy to be called an author.
But the Library Journal gave my second book, Disturbing the Dead, a starred review. That means something, doesn’t it? Certainly it does. I am worthy after all! I am an author.
But... but... A reviewer said DTD has too many characters. Omigod. Here is a person who believes that some of the characters I love so much shouldn’t even exist. How can I go on writing now that I know this? Where did I put the razor blades?
Okay, calm down, Sandy, and go reread the advance reviews. Oh, look, Kirkus -- Kirkus, so difficult to please! -- declared DTD “fast-paced, chilling, and compulsively readable.” Whew. My life and sanity saved again.
But... but... Yet another reviewer (they’re multiplying like wire hangers in a closet) thinks DTD has too many Melungeon characters and, furthermore, I made too many of them poor. Now I feel like an insensitive wretch who traffics in stereotypes. Forget the razor blades. Bullets are faster.
What one reviewer praises, another will criticize. And it’s the criticism, seldom the praise, that sticks in my mind. Every review is a source of nail-biting worry before I read it and possible agony afterward. “Don’t take it personally,” everybody says. Impossible advice for someone like me to follow. Everything is personal.
I would not dream of challenging reviewers, because they’re supposed to give their honest opinions and I’m grateful to them for telling readers about my books. In my rare lucid moments, I realize that my reviews have been mostly positive and I have nothing to complain about. I try not to care that at least two reviewers think Disturbing the Dead takes place in North Carolina, even though the characters never venture outside Virginia. (True to form, I’m convinced that misapprehension is somehow my fault.)
But I keep wondering exactly which characters I should have left out of the book and which phrases were clunky. Is it too late to recall every copy and rewrite?
I regard my work-in-progress with a cold eye. Maybe I should kill off Greg right now. Heck, maybe Greg should never have been born in the first place. And clunky writing? Oh, good grief, the book is filled with it. No one will ever want to read the thing. It’s hopeless. I’m hopeless. Getting two books published was a fluke. It will never happen again.
But if, through some miracle, I do publish a third book, I’m not going to read the reviews. Not a one. Zip.
I am finished with this particular form of masochism.
Really.
Now, at last, I understand my urge to publish novels.
It’s not a deep-seated desire to communicate. It’s not a need to purge my imagination of all those crazy made-up people who keep running around in their made-up world, doing shocking things. It’s not, heaven knows, a belief that publication will make me rich and famous. (I was never naive enough to believe that.)
No, it’s masochism.
I just love putting myself at the mercy of strangers. I take a perverse pleasure in releasing my creative children into the world and waiting, wide-eyed and eager, for the world to shatter my fragile writerly ego with those awful-and-wonderful things called reviews.
As my husband and friends never tire of pointing out, I can ignore reams of praise if I find a single disapproving sentence buried within. So what if the reviewer loved the characters, found the setting evocative, enjoyed the plot right to the end? None of that counts. What counts is that she thought some of my phrasing was... gulp... clunky.
Despair! I will never write again. I will toss the computer out with the trash because I am clearly unworthy to be called an author.
But the Library Journal gave my second book, Disturbing the Dead, a starred review. That means something, doesn’t it? Certainly it does. I am worthy after all! I am an author.
But... but... A reviewer said DTD has too many characters. Omigod. Here is a person who believes that some of the characters I love so much shouldn’t even exist. How can I go on writing now that I know this? Where did I put the razor blades?
Okay, calm down, Sandy, and go reread the advance reviews. Oh, look, Kirkus -- Kirkus, so difficult to please! -- declared DTD “fast-paced, chilling, and compulsively readable.” Whew. My life and sanity saved again.
But... but... Yet another reviewer (they’re multiplying like wire hangers in a closet) thinks DTD has too many Melungeon characters and, furthermore, I made too many of them poor. Now I feel like an insensitive wretch who traffics in stereotypes. Forget the razor blades. Bullets are faster.
What one reviewer praises, another will criticize. And it’s the criticism, seldom the praise, that sticks in my mind. Every review is a source of nail-biting worry before I read it and possible agony afterward. “Don’t take it personally,” everybody says. Impossible advice for someone like me to follow. Everything is personal.
I would not dream of challenging reviewers, because they’re supposed to give their honest opinions and I’m grateful to them for telling readers about my books. In my rare lucid moments, I realize that my reviews have been mostly positive and I have nothing to complain about. I try not to care that at least two reviewers think Disturbing the Dead takes place in North Carolina, even though the characters never venture outside Virginia. (True to form, I’m convinced that misapprehension is somehow my fault.)
But I keep wondering exactly which characters I should have left out of the book and which phrases were clunky. Is it too late to recall every copy and rewrite?
I regard my work-in-progress with a cold eye. Maybe I should kill off Greg right now. Heck, maybe Greg should never have been born in the first place. And clunky writing? Oh, good grief, the book is filled with it. No one will ever want to read the thing. It’s hopeless. I’m hopeless. Getting two books published was a fluke. It will never happen again.
But if, through some miracle, I do publish a third book, I’m not going to read the reviews. Not a one. Zip.
I am finished with this particular form of masochism.
Really.
Views: 15
Comment
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Comment by Sandra Parshall on August 30, 2007 at 11:19am
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Oh, I wish I had taken the cover photo for DTD, but no, Poisoned Pen Press's wonderful cover designer found it after I told him I'd like a picture of the woods, with snow on the ground (to match the first scene in the book, when the deputies are gathering a scattered skeleton on a mountaintop in a snow storm). Can you believe I was actually asked for my input? Gotta love Poisoned Pen. They treat their writers well.
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Comment by Russ Heitz on August 30, 2007 at 8:42am
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Really enjoyed the masochism essay. I'm sure all us scribblers can identify with your feelings. I guess the amazing thing is, we keep on writing anyway. Which reminds me, why am I doodling around here when I should be working on THE NEXT ONE. Can I actually do another one? God, I hope so. P.S. Am I right in assuming you took the photo for the cover of DTD? Excellent! I wonder, when and where?
Russ
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Kirkus was totally positive. The complaints were all in online reviews -- but really, they were so minor that I feel silly admitting that they bothered me. I need to stop being a perfectionist.
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Jack, I don't think anybody does masochism as well as writers do. I've never encountered such a bunch of self-torturers. Friends who are not yet published tell me to stop agonizing over little criticisms, and I nod and think, Just wait. Your turn will come.
Dianne, I'm glad you like Tom! Praise from a writer of your calibre means a lot. Yeah, I'll get back to him after I finish the suspense novel I'm writing.
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Comment by Dianne Day on April 7, 2007 at 6:06am
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I think it's wonderful that you are getting so many reviews! And ones with stars, yet!
Congratulations. I loved Disturbing the Dead and I certainly hope there will be a third book in this series, SOON. I want to read more about Tom Bridger.
Dianne Day
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Comment by Jack Getze on April 7, 2007 at 2:22am
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Oh, isn't it awful? Somebody said my writing was "rough in spots" and, just like you, I'm convinced it's the whole book. I suck. If it was a "good" read, why wasn't it a "great" read? I should go back to the newspaper!
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