Friday, December 5, 2008

reviews

So this blog about my brain book has been sidetracked by my other work that is so imminent and urgent. I sold my first story to the US market and it went up on nerve.com yesterday. I also got a contract from Text Publishing today. I have entered a new playing field. Along with this comes some stumbling blocks. My first review on nerve.com was a harsh and completely unkind one. Reviews. I forgot about reviews. It makes me wonder about my book and its publication and the reader feedback. I have had to endure two very nasty reader comments on my furiousvagina blog. One of them I have saved and I come back to it ocasionally. I wonder why this man (it is always a man) has decided to have his own voice heard without having anything particularly interesting to say. It is the same on nerve. I am hoping that some of my regular readers will log on to nerve and balance up this very abrupt comment with something a bit more interesting.

I don't mind criticism. This is the point I would like to make clear. If you do not like my work, and you have a reason not to like it, then that is completely valid and I will be happy to hear and learn from your comments. It is the thoughtless chatter that I object to.

I should of course not bother reading the reader feedback. Like reviews in a magazine they can wear away at your soul.

When I am writing this new book, this embryonic thing, it is dangerous to expose it's barely formed underbelly to the possibility of mean and pointless feedback. I should hide it away as most writers do untill I am ready to unleash it. But this is not the point of the thing. The point is to watch a writer find her way through a book from beginning to end. The point is to interract with my audience and learn from them. I remember when I used to make television documentaries. I could always tell what was wrong with the thing when I brought it to an audience to view. Almost before I had pressed play I would thing - I need to cut that scene, or it is too long in the set up, or The charater is not likeable enough.

I want your reader comments. I want to know what you think of me. But I don't want someone to write - take this pointless crap off the internet, beause it is not pointless. Even the bad writing is not pointless. There is always a reason for everything I write and I hope that you, my audience will see and understand this.

I also kind of hope that you will log in to nerve.com and go to personal essays and leave something more intelligent than what is there at the moment...

3 comments:

Zen Quill said...

Hi Krissy,

I started reading this blog entry and flicked over to nerve.com before I finished reading it all. I left a comment and afterward came back to finish reading the rest of your blog and found that you may not read the reviews, so I have posted it here - because I agree that thoughtless chatter is pointless and because you should know what others think of your work. It's how writers grow to be better authors.

I wrote:

"I admire the truth I see in this author's work, and admire her ability to shed the glossy veneer of life to show us what lies beneath. I don't find her work completely and utterly pointless. I find it brave and honest and real.

What I find completely and utterly pointless is people's inability to allow others to freely express without being shamed or condemned for the act. I guess it all boils down to how secure you are within yourself and how safe you feel when you venture into another's world.

Obviously, we are not all cut from the same bolt of cloth. We all like and dislike different things. I respect ZXZ's right to comment, but find it hard to respect them for requesting this author to not waste bandwidth in future.

When any writer stirs something in me, particularly something that makes me uncomfortable, it makes me sit back and wonder why. It is a perfect opportunity to examine and journey within.

There were parts in this piece of work that made me squirm in my seat for a bit. And deep down, I know the reasons why that might be. But my fleeting discomfort doesn't give me the right to stop someone's creative expression.

I found her work engaging, and her writing beautiful despite the short-lived discomfort that I experienced in parts. More power to her, I say, for stepping into a land that few of us are brave enough to traverse.
--Zenq"


I am an honest and fair person, and if I thought someone's work sucked, I'd tell them - not to hurt them but to perhaps help them see things a different way, in order to grow.

I guess the downside of reviews are the pointless chattery lot who can't deal with their inner workings when a writer challenges them to step beyond the safe predetermined boundaries they reside it. If someone responds unkindly to my work, and they can't offer a valid and intelligent reason for their choice, then I guess I just have to look with a wider lens and consider the source - and that usually explains most things.

Personally, the fact that you got a response like that from Captain Bandwidth tells me that you hit a nerve right there. It tells me that your writing affected him/her. That tells me that as a writer, you did your job and did it well. And for the reasons above, it also tells me that his/her knee-jerk reaction and mindless comment is actually a compliment and not a complaint.

Well done, sister.

Krissy Kneen said...

No I did go read the reviews and thank you. I am going to have to get used to all kinds of reviews. I know other writers who feel crippled by them but I have indeed put myself out there and am expecting very high-school responses, but I am glad there are people like you who have a counter vision.

Thanks!

Zen Quill said...

You are very welcome...