Avoiding Toothless Rabid Bullies & Such

It is 2024. I have been here a very long time.

As I age, and time ahead gets shorter, I usually do not bother to read what I do not like.

Time is of the essence and all that stuff.

So, if I send you a review, it means I liked what I read and I am telling you about my reaction and thoughts.

Please, do not take any negative remoo you get (from anyone) too seriously because if the reviewer could write and make millions off of it, the odds are that they would be doing that instead of nitpicking and finding fault with us.

Length does not always equal quality, when it comes to reviewing or anything else. Sometimes it is smarter to get to the point and move along.

Save all the negative, dopey reviews you get and quote them when you are rich and famous. Read them aloud to people. That can be quite satisfying and sometimes hilarious.

Your writing success is the very best revenge toward bullies.

Picture them as toothless, rabid bullies and jackals, like I do.

Here is a quote from Max Perkins to Ernest Hemingway about critics:

"It would be a pretty thing if the very significance of so original a book should be disregarded because of the howls of a lot of cheap, prurient, moronic yappers."

Max Perkins of Scribner's Publishing House

Back to me.

I am a bull (or Hand when I am tHiNg in the autumn) or even a person who likes to read!

PROCEDURE

Something catches my attention. I will try and let you know what that something is.

I find something to moo about, remark upon, remember, and/or applaud, and I react to it.

I swish the flies off my tail. If I am tHiNg, (a disembodied hand that comes out every autumn) I wave goodbye.

I leave.

REACTING TO ME AND OTHER REMOOERS IN THE HERD

If any reviewer is nasty, remember it's probably some unhappiness in their pasture and nothing to do with the writing at hand or hoof. Maybe the pitiful rabid jackal has a toothache. It happens sometimes. Feel sorry for them.

Or, harvest the best revenge of all, which is to.....

Use them in your future writings.

I used to know someone on here who geared their thank-you notes for reviews to something irrelevant, totally unrelated to the writing or the review.

One example was when he got a scathing review. He said in his reply that he was so grateful for the insight into the political situation of the present time. This was something that wasn't mentioned so the nasty reviewer was left to scratch his head and wonder. I thought that was hilarious and if someone is totally ignorant sometimes I thank for something I imagined they might do. Entertains me, anyway!

If they do not encourage you as a writer, they have failed as a reviewer.

I assume that all reviews are honest because they are opinions. They don't have to all agree with each other, or with me. I don't tend to call people liars because I don't agree with them, but that's just me.

Uh oh. Here I come now.