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Reviews

REVIEWS

I'm sure you have all read book reviews, then read the book and disagreed with the reviewers.  I read lotsa books and disagree with lotsa reviewers.  When I was young I worried about what people thought of me, I actually took other people seriously, and that created a lot of anxiety.  I'm warning the younger, more impressionable people on this site to not be discouraged or upset by unfavorable reviews.  I've gotten some strange ones, which at one time would have upset me but these days just make me laugh.  I like what one older person, who has been on this site for a few years told me.  She said she was so happy she found this site, because she had been writing for years and never knew till she joined here that she'd been doing it wrong.  I've had some reviewers who wouldn't have known that she was being facetious.  I think it's fine for reviewers to say what they like or dislike.  What I find humorous, and some times annoying, is when some reviewers try to tell me what I'm doing wrong.  I recently had one who told me my paragraphs were too long - they should be shorter. Hunh? I've been told that sentences had to have a subject and a verb, that I can't use run on sentences, that I can't make up new words, on and on.  One funny one was, a random review from a very new member, who started the review by saying they had a Masters Degree in Education, (their credentials I guess), The story they reviewed was kinda surrealistic and involved visions of a forest morphing out of a restaurant  - The reviewer said something like - I couldn't tell if I was in a restaurant or a forest - and suggested that I should make things more clear.  Hunh?  I replied - I thanked them for the review and explained that when I wrote the story I didn't know if I was in a forest or a restaurant either, and said I hoped maybe the readers would be able to help me out.  The reviewer wrote back and told me not to worry - when I had more experience I might be able to do a better job.  Hunh?  I finally wrote back and told them that my first reply was facetious - They never replied to that, but I'm assuming that a Master of Education knows what facetious means.  I guess it just comes back to the fact that I hate rules.  I don't think creative writing has rules, or shouldn't have rules - I resent it when someone tells me I SHOULD do something a certain way, or that I'm doing it WRONG.  I appreciate it when they tell what they like or dislike - they can even say they would like it better if done in a different manner, but don't tell me I'm required to do something else because there is some authority somewhere who says it's SUPPOSED to be done in a specific way.  I've been tempted to plagiarize something by, say, Samuel Beckett or James Joyce, and see how many reviewers tell me I'm not doing it right.  (  Not that I'm comparing myself to Beckett or Joyce, not even I'm that egotistical ),  Anyway, I'm just saying. Don't let anyone stifle your creativity by listening to people who are trying to tell how you're SUPPOSED to do things!