Following up in the reviewish theme, I thought I might make a little point that will aid many writers in navigating the dangerous waters of throwing your work out there for everyone to see. I’ve mentioned before (with absoludicrous examples) that it’s always a bad idea for a author (at whatever level) to engage in critiquing reviews of their own work. Of course, the pragmatic reason is because it makes you look like a whack job gone off their meds, or, at the very least, a petty asshole— but you still might angst over those poor souls who refuse to see the glory of your genius.
If you do, meditate on the two following facts:
- Nobody likes everything.
- Everyone hates something.
#1 Means that it is impossible to write something that every single reader will enjoy. Don’t even try to delude yourself it is possible. Look at the bestselling books on Amazon, and how many 1-star reviews they collect. Look at all the hate sites that are devoted to ripping on popular works of fiction. The more people read your work, the more people will find they dislike it. Sorry, that’s the way it works.
#2 Means that, whatever you write, some reader somewhere, will find some element, trope or character you’ve used to be feloniously objectionable and will invalidate your entire work based on that fact. The list of things that can do this to some people is endless: violence to animals, any depiction of rape, women written by men, homosexuality, pre-marital sex, drug use, positive depictions of Republicans, magical nanotech, pop-cultural references, alternate history, unhappy endings. . . Face the fact that whatever you write will contain someone’s hot-button topic. And note, unless the person reacting is a professional reviewer, they may not even be aware of their hot button— until someone points out that they’ve given a one star review to every book they’ve read that has a first person female narrator.
Accept these truths and your life as a writer will be much more pleasant.
