Dealing with Negative Reviews

Wow! I actually had an idea for a post today! WOOT WOOT. Yeah, I been suckin' in the bloggin' world cause honestly, I'm tryin' to find some sort of unique angle/twist to my posts and nothin' has been comin' to me. (Let's see how many times I can kill the g in my ing verbs :-) ).

But, today I was lead to a blog post with a review on someone's self-pubbed book. The review itself was actually pretty good, but the reviewer did mention that some of this author's sentence structures, typos, and grammatical errors sometimes disrupted the flow of what would have otherwise been some compelling and emotional scenes. Sometimes the scenes worked great, and sometimes the reviewer felt pulled out of this author's story because of the afore mentioned problems. Overall, the review was really nice. Unfortunately, the author read the review and apparently felt a need to defend herself and her writing. As I read the back and forth posts between the posters and author's posts, I was utterly flabbergasted by her responses. She was so angry and defensive and started posting positive reivews from other places and she went so far as to start telling posters to (and I quote) "Fuck off!"

Wow. Can you say professional suicide? Turn off? Have no intentions of buying her book and supporting her career? That chick will be needing a pseudonym and some major plastic surgery to change her appearance if she has any plans on making it in this biz. I mean, she acted COMPLETELY out of line and really upset A LOT of people who follow this reviewer's blog. And you know how that goes. Remember the Faberge Organics commercial from the 80's with Heather Locklear? "And they'll tell a friend, and they'll tell a friend and so on and so on and so on."

Anyway, it got to the point where this author sounded like a little brat having a temper tantrum. She hears one review she doesn't love and she flips out completely. I mean, I can imagine how hard it is to have your book out there and even though you know there will ALWAYS be someone who doesn't love your work and will tear it up, that those negative reviews hurt. So, I started thinking that if I ever when I get one of my books published, will I read all the reviews? Will I read the negative ones as well as the positive ones? Will I ask people to just send me the positive ones to keep me encouraged or is it important to at least consider some of the points made by those who had issues regarding your writing/story telling. I guess it's hard to say/know until I'm actually there, but I do know that the bad will come with the good. It's inevitable.


My question to you fellow writers (published and wannabe published), what is your take on this? Do/Will you read all the reviews both positive and negative, when your book gets published? How will you prepare yourself to handle it? And to those who are published and have had to deal with this, please share your take on this! How have you handled it all?

Oh Where, Oh Where Did My Brainmojo Go...

Oh where, oh where could it be?

So, I'm sitting there on my first break of the day after cleaning the house and entertaining a friend and her son for a playdate. My kids are occupied and I've got my laptop opened and I'm ready to add some words to my new WIP. I stare at the screen and finally write a sentence. Nope. Don't like it. Delete. I stare at the screen again and try writing a different one. Uh uh. Nope, not loving it. Delete. I stare at the screen again and type yet a different sentence and...WTF??? No!!!! No, no, no, no, no, nooooooooo. What the H E double hockey sticks is happening to my brain??? Why can I suddenly not put words together to form a good sentence? Several minutes later I'm sitting there thinking,"Oh my God! What if I've can never write again? What if this is it for me and the past two and half years have been this big tease on my life??? What else will I do with myself if I can't write? Have I really lost my writer's Mojo???"

Not to worry good people (because I'm sure you all were quite concerned *insert eye rolling emoticon*). I did eventually find it (my mojo), but man was that a scary ass ride! Turns out I was just too tired and shutting the computer for a few hours and having a STRONG cup of coffee did the trick. Writing commenced.

Whew.

Has anything like that ever happened to you? Did you ever lose your writer's mojo?

I've been a bad blogger buddy...forgive me???

hey fellow blogger buddies!

just wanted to say hi and send out my apologies for my lack of participation in the blogging world lately. i have been overwhelmed with life and blogging has taken a temporary hit in my list of things i haven't had time for lately. i'm SURE you guys can all understand that sometimes...life just happens.

i have put querying for Breaking Out on hold for a short time while i do some small re-writes on it to address a few things beta reader number 7 pointed out. i feel like this re-write process never ends, but like everyone else, i want this book to be everything it can be--to show it's full potential. i'm also working on that out of the trunk novel and an SNI that wouldn't leave me alone. i will hopefully get back into the swing of blogging soon.

peace, love and positivity to you all!!!!

what takes a hit in your life when things become a bit overwhelming? 

Return of the Itches

As in the itches to write. Like really write. Something new. One of my several SNI's sitting there screaming, "Write me! Write me!" "Me first, Melanie. Pleeeeeease!!" "No. Me first. You know you've been thinking about me."

And I have. About all of them. So many stories to write so little time. So, why am I only itching to write and not writing? Because I'm giving myself a small break. I have been writing, and revising non-stop for over 2 years. I am now finally in the querying process and it is stressful as those of you who have been through it know. But that's not the only reason, I'm not writing. When I knew I was coming to an end of working on my latest novel (and let's face it, you are never really...done),  I took on a few beta commitments, so that has also been keeping me busy. I'm catching up with friends who have been practically ignored over the past couple of years because of my obsession to write with any spare moment I had. Being a full-time mother is my priority, so when I had a few minutes here and there to spare, guess where it went...yep--to writing.

But, the itch is getting stronger and stronger and STRONGER and I honestly don't think I can hold out much longer. I have been doing some revising on my recently out of the trunk novel, which I''m so super excited about, but I also feel a need to write something new, so I have a feeling I will be two-timing my projects. :-)

Do you take breaks from your writing? What do you do during your breaks and how long do/can you stay away?

AWWW...YEAHHHHH

okay, is anyone else insanely excited that Ghostbusters 3 is coming out in 2012??? GHOSTBUSTERS PEOPLE!!! and we are talking the original writers, director and cast all returning. check it out on imbd, here.

that's all i gots for today :D

Doing Book Reviews...My Two Cents

I'm a writer (not a pubbed one maybe, but I consider myself one none-the-less). I image some day having one of my books actually published, on the shelf in book stores, or being ordered on people's kindles and ipads, or being borrowed from the library, or from a friend who LOVED the book and desperately wants someone else to experience it and love it as much as s/he did. As a writer hoping to be published one day, I can not for a second imagine the pain of googling my name or book title  and coming across a horrible, mean, negative review. God, that must REALLY HURT. I mean, like a knife stabbing pain in the gut that slices up into your heart and back again.

Think about how hard you have worked on your book (or books). Think about the hours, days, weeks, months and even years you have put into writing your story, revising and editing. And revising and editing. And revising and...you get the point. Then there's that blasted query letter and the synopsis to get through. Then the querying process and the editing process from there and then it's still not over. Then, finally after all that blood, sweat and tears (LOTS OF TEARS and a few too many glasses of wine :-)), you finally get published. HOORAY!!!!!! You are high from the excitement in seeing your baby, your hard work, all pay off.

And then you read a review that says, "Eh, an okay read. Don't really recommend this book. The writing is mediocre, the story drags, and the characters would be better served in the Land of Make Believe cause they just didn't seem authentic to me."

OUUUUUCCCCCHHHHHHHHH! That friggin hurts!

Ya think? This person deeply believed in their book. In their story. Whether you think it's good, bad, or just so, so, their heart was likely embedded into that project. Not only that, their agent and/or publisher obviously believed in it too. IT GOT PUBLISHED!!!

Word of mouth is a very powerful tool in this biz. Silence can be too. Talking, bragging, and swooning over the books you love and not discussing the ones you don't basically has the same affect, but without the negativity and dissing of someone's work. Don't you think? I'm not talking about having book discussion with your friends or even discussing/blogging about the kinds of things that drive you crazy or anger or frustrate you in books in general (not naming the book). I'm talking about using public forums to discuss and sway others to not want to read a book. It may not be your intention to do that, but that is essentially what it does. It's hard enough dealing with the nut jobs who want to ban books and since they're not going anywhere, let's just leave the negativity to them.

So, there you have it. My really long blah blah blah two 37 cent post.