Thursday, November 6, 2014

Critics


After he had told me everything he thought was wrong with my book, he suggested I should withdraw it from publication, rewrite it, and try again.

At first, he had not known what became of one of the characters. I e-mailed him a list of page numbers which described the character’s demise. Then last night, he said he thought I had published BYLINE too soon. The characters were not developed, he said, and there was no suspense in the book, and why didn’t I do more with the villain’s grandmother? He didn’t find anything to like.

I was curiously unmoved. “So what do you think?” he asked.

“I think I’m done with that book. I’m already working on something else,” I said. The whole thing made me glad I had not agreed to do any book signings.

I have had some generous five-star reviews from my friends. And I’ve had suggestions from others. The main character was too ingenuous, one said. She had worked on school newspapers; she should have known more about the big metropolitan newspaper. The story about the centaur was too long, another said. I killed off her parents too soon, someone said. There were too many characters. Who were all those people?

It should have been longer, someone said. A few people read the book in one sitting; others apparently couldn’t finish it.

Oh, well.

It made me think of a college production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni a friend once directed. He made the opera a Gothic horror story, murky, dark, sinister. Nobody understood what he was after, and a lot of people had a lot of criticism to offer. “Nobody once asked me what I was trying to do,” he said.

“What did you learn from this experience?” Last night’s critic wanted to know.

“I learned that everybody reads differently,” I said.

I thought about something my friend Sue said in response to an earlier spate of criticism. “I suppose you didn’t write the book he wanted to read,” she said, kindly.

3 comments:

Susan Moore Jordan said...

I stand by my comment. Every reader finds something different in a book, and sometimes you write the book they want to read. It's lovely and very fulfilling when that happens. I recently had a friend of many years read one of my books, and I admit to being nervous when I knew he was reading it. I didn't know what he'd say. When his comment was "Very moving and very real," I felt as if he'd handed me a prize of some kind. All you can do is tell the story as best you can, and you succeeded splendidly with BYLINE. And I believe that "tell the story as best you can" may have been something you said to me at one time!

Anonymous said...

This happens with artwork, too...I guess that is true with any art form. I get people telling me all the time that I should have done something different with what I created out of my head. Sometimes, I take the opinions in consideration, like the one about exchangingthe image of myself for a dog in my digital artwork, "The Catwalker". That worked out great, and I have sold many of those! Otherwise, I shrug off the comments, because, ultimately, I create to express myself, not to please others. I liked Byline; I really felt that you described everything so well, that I felt that I was "there". I guess criticism is part of the art, especially when it is put out there for purchase. It is also true that no two people can read/view/experience anything the same. Just remember Rick Nelson's "Garden Party" song....especially the last line:"You can't please everyone, so you've got to please yourself".

Carmen said...

I love Byline and I am so looking forward to your next project. Whoever it was who said you should start over can shove that comment where the sun don't shine. Hugs.