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Tahlia Newland

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What REALLY helps writers? Truth?

February 1, 2011 by Tahlia Newland

There is clearly a lot of support for writers within the writing community on the web, but if all we give each other is support, without real help, then not only are we not helping, we could also be hindering them as well.

I’m not saying we shouldn’t be encouraging and supportive, no, no, no. These things are the very basis of our helping each other. What I’m saying is that support isn’t enough and that without real feedback on our work it could lead a writer to think that they are ready to publish when they’re not.

I have been to blogsites where a writer has something up for you to look at. I read it and find flaws, but I don’t feel I can say so because all the other comments are glowing. I want to support the writer. I can see some good ideas there, but… in its present state it needs work, so I don’t comment. I don’t bookmark the site either. I’m guilty of not really helping.

But if I was honest, how would it be read by others? If I was the only one to point out the spelling mistakes, the wrong punctuation, the cumbersome sentence, the excessive description, the overuse of adverbs and so on, how would the writer and other readers take it? Would they be able to handle it? Are they ready to see it? Might they blacklist me as nasty? (not as strange as it may sound – read on) I may not be a published writer yet, but as a reader and someone who knows a little bit about writing, I can see obvious flaws. I’m not one of those who reads looking for them either. If I see them, then they’ve leapt out at me. That means they would be bashing a publisher over the head already.

I really appreciate it when my commentors are brutally honest. The most help I’ve had is from those who point out specific flaws and tell me what the solution would be – that is real help. Not those who just say something generic like, it needs work. That’s the truth, fine, but tell me how and where it needs work, otherwise it’s not a helpful comment at all. What kind of work? How can I fix it? A little hint? Anything?

That sort of feedback is a big ask though. It’s asking for time and consideration. So anyone who does that and comes back again to see how you’re going and to follow you through, they’re showing the greatest support, help, and yes, in a way, love. They really care and that’s a rare and beautiful thing. At least that’s how I see it.

Now, I have to tell you how I discovered that not everyone thinks the same way.

I had a book to review. Self published. I’d offered to review it because I was interested in the story but there weren’t any reviews anywhere, so I wasn’t going to buy it.  I never buy a book without reading a few reviews first. Thinking I could help the author, I offered to review it and she gave me a free pdf.  The idea was that I could write a nice review and help her sell the book. Unfortunately for both of us, I couldn’t, because the book badly needed editing.  Some of the problems were very basic punctuation errors.

So… still trying to be helpful. I annotated the errors and sent her an email, pointing out the problems and suggesting that she employ an editor. One of the beauties of ebooks is that you can re-edit and republish quite easily. I was polite – I swear it. And I did say what I liked about it, but she was seriously pissed off at me.  I knew it was a risk, but I cared enough to take that risk, and I took the time to communicate what the problems were and made a suggestion as to how to proceed. I even ran the problems past my publisher friends to see if she agreed.  She did, vehemently. I did my best to help. In return, I was accused of running a scam, of being ignorant and so on. She also told me that ‘there are no writing rules’. Mmm; that attitude showed in her writing.

Of course, I haven’t, nor will I publish a review of this book, or even give you its name, not because the author threatened to tell everyone what a terrible person I am at each place where I placed a review, but because it wouldn’t help her career.

The really disturbing thing though was that she had been part of two online critique groups who had evidently raved about her work. I took it as a sad indictment of critique groups. She’d obviously had plenty of support from these groups, but no real help. They’d allowed her to publish a book in a state that would do her career as a writer no good at all. That is not helpful. Not only that, but she is so sure that her work is good that she can’t see the help that’s offered to make it better.  So, not helpful.  I doubt that this book will sell well. In it’s present state it doesn’t deserve to, but the frustrating thing is that after editing, it could be really good.

If all we give each other is support, without real help, then we could be contributing to ending a beautiful career before it’s even begun.

Do you agree?

Would you rather lots of accolades, or some real honest, bone crunching, even heart breaking feedback?

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Filed Under: How to handle criticism Tagged With: Blogging, Dealing with crticism & rejection, Social networking

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Comments

  1. Carolyn says

    February 2, 2011 at 2:39 am

    My sentiments exactly. There’s a throng of cheerleaders on these kind of websites (God love ’em) …but it comes off more like a social networking ploy for everybody, rather than anything with substance regarding the reason why you put yourself out there in the first place, especially if all you’ve been doing with your manuscript is spinning your wheels within the publishing machine.

  2. Jami Gold says

    February 2, 2011 at 2:41 pm

    I agree completely. I’d always want someone to tell me the truth. Then again, I don’t get offended easily. 🙂 Empty platitudes don’t help anyone. Great post!

    • tahliaN says

      February 3, 2011 at 9:08 am

      Yeah, I don’t get offended easily either and I tend to see things in a positive light, so that helps a lot.

  3. Ollin says

    February 2, 2011 at 3:14 pm

    When it comes to writers who struggle in life and in getting to the point where they CAN write–yes THESE people need our support and our compassion.

    But as far as constructive criticism about the work itself, that is A MUST.

    I thank my sister who was the first to show me how to really support an author. She never told me my writing was bad, but she didn’t tell me it was good either. She JUST said that it had great potential and I had to keep working at it.

    Writers need to understand that it’s not their FINAL work that is being critiqued it’s their WORK IN PROGRESS that is being critiqued. Of course it will not be perfect.

    I think if the comment is specific, honest, and feels true, then it is okay. {Of course some people don’t know what feels true and might still take offense, oh well.}

    Maybe it’s better to say what should be avoided like: general comments, personal attacks, attempts to FUNDAMENTALLY change the work to please the critic, ignoring any positives, just focusing on the negatives.

    {If there are no positives just say: it has great potential keep working on it!}

    We all could use improvement and we should learn not to take critic’s personally.

    Great post!

  4. tahliaN says

    February 3, 2011 at 9:23 am

    Yes, it is a good idea to say what should be avoided. Maybe I’ll do a post sometime on how to give helpful criticism. I learned this over years as a performer, trying to get people I was choreographing for to improve, also teaching art, and of course being on the recieving end of heaps of it.

  5. markmacpherson says

    March 31, 2011 at 4:47 pm

    I agree. I think the Indie publishing community has a great chance to overhaul the “standard” publishing community if actions like yours are more frequent.

    Publishing houses/agents employ editors to “tidy up” all work. Most (published) authors accept that to some degree (I assume, I’m not published). All books need editing, even the ones that have been published. I bet all of us have read books (even classics) and thought a sentence or two could be phrased in a better way. (Go on, admit it!).

    Something like a communal Manuscript Appraisal system would be awesome (I don’t know how it would/could work). They always seems to be glowing in their praise but still get the editing ideas across to the author. My first book was utter crap (now… at the time I thought it was perfect!) but the Appraisal system worked well, pointing out the good ideas and then suggesting what could be improved (even if deleting pages 100 to 250 is the suggestion!).

    I’ve thought the perfect fit for the Indie publishing environment would be Smashwords.com with a back-end, pre-publishing section for new/unpublished authors much like the Goodreads web site for general readers. New authors could review/suggest improvement/edit books in a cozy, safe, secure-ish environment.

    I think it would, also, help if authors finished their first book. Re-read it. Thought how absolutely perfect it was. Then pressed the “delete” key and began their second book.

  6. Justin Hall says

    March 31, 2011 at 4:50 pm

    I think that “author” woman was just insane.

  7. Marianne says

    March 31, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Sounds like constructive criticism. Someone once said “To be the best, you have to beat the best” (or something alone those lines) if people don’t give you an honest opinion then it defeats the object and prevents improvement. It appears that some of these literary groups are killing with kindness, so to speak.

  8. Zara says

    March 31, 2011 at 5:14 pm

    I couldn’t agree more. I’d rather have the flaws pointed out so that the final product is perfect. I’m one of those people that if there is an error within the first few pages of a book, I’ll put it down and never read it. Like you said, I’m not one to look for flaws but they do jump out at you. My theory is, if you’re spending more time editing the book then enjoying the story it’s not worth buying or reading. 🙂

    I’m sorry about the aweful encounter. An honost opinion is priceless!

  9. Susan Bennett says

    March 31, 2011 at 5:46 pm

    I agree with you. An honest review is worth its weight in gold. Unfortunately, the indie culture that currently exists discourages critique in favor of blind praise. As long as we continue to practice this sort of self-congratulatory reviewing, the publishing industry’s argument that indie writers don’t measure up will be true.

    As an indie writer who chooses to review other indies, I don’t publish reviews on books I can’t give at least three stars to because I don’t want to harm another writer’s career. Truthfully, what indie writers need are more reviewers who don’t mind telling the truth — even if it is not what the writer wants to hear.

  10. Mary McDonald says

    April 1, 2011 at 7:17 am

    That’s sad that she didn’t take your advice. I have no doubt that you were polite about how you worded it. I’ve read your blog before and you are never rude or insulting. It was very nice of you to try to help her. As for the critique group, that is kind of scary. Writers put their trust in those groups to make their writing better.

  11. tahliaN says

    April 1, 2011 at 9:29 am

    It’s great to see that there are other writers who hold professionalism and persuit of execellence above ego stroking and defending oneself against genuine criticism. This has inspired me to write another post on this topic because every poorly editied indie book compromieses every Indie writers efforts.

    Thanks for the comments.

  12. PS Deas says

    April 1, 2011 at 11:21 am

    Ms. Newland: Your comments are both insightful and kind. I hope you will critique and, quite probably, improve writing of mine, someday.

  13. Jemima Pett says

    June 18, 2012 at 7:19 pm

    I’m with P S Deas on that one. I arrived at your post because of your comment on Aimee Salter’s blog. I’m sorry you had that experience, but awed at the trouble you took to help. Thanks for being part of the community!

  14. Tahlia Newland says

    June 19, 2012 at 9:46 am

    Thanks for your comments PS and Jemima, I like to help, so feel free to ask me for a prepublication review anytime. See my review policy page.

Trackbacks

  1. How to handle criticism | 'Lethal Inheritance' says:
    February 15, 2011 at 10:36 am

    […] Posted on February 15, 2011 by tahliaN| Leave a comment I published a post recently titled What REALLY helps writers? Truth? In it I said that as well as support, writers (as well as any artist) need truthful […]

  2. How not to react to negative reviews | Tahlia Newland says:
    April 1, 2011 at 12:42 pm

    […] Posted on April 1, 2011 by tahliaN| Leave a comment A few weeks ago I wrote a post on the unfortunate tendency of some Indie authors to publish their work without having genuine […]

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