THE WRITING ASYLUM

A Writer’s Guide to Overcoming Criticism

As writers, we love our babies. Ok, some of them more than others. Some stories are too ugly to love, but we share them with the world anyway with the hope they find love. But finding loving readers is a lot like dating. You will be exposed to duds, creeps, and the deranged. Isn’t diversity grand? 

No matter how careful you are with your words or intention, eventually, as a writer you will attract trolls or tread on readers’ toes and bring out their antagonistic claws. Kiss your good intentions goodbye, they aren’t relevant. Writer, you are a toe rag. Don’t worry, it happens to the best of us. Reader dissatisfaction can be the result of a number of issues;

1. You wrote utter crap
2. Reader expectations and writer promises 
3. A misalignment of values between reader and writer
4. There is a misinterpretation of your intent 

You Wrote Crap

Lick your wounds. We all have ugly babies. The only solution to writing crap is to recognise the smelly turd and move on. Sharpen your skills as a writer. Evaluate feedback. Take a course. Research the craft of writing. Rework the piece. Editing is magic. Revenge is sweet. 

Even a solid writer will produce maggots from time to time. We learn by experimenting like a mad scientist, mixing words together and doing. Flopping feels like a big deal, but it really isn’t. The flop is the story, not you, the writer, the person. A failure is not trying at all. 

Reader Expection and Writer Promises

You simply can not and will not please everyone. It’s not possible. You might as well be yourself. Some time ago, one of my writing mentors shared her experience. She finds that negative reviews and feedback writers often receive are a result of reeling readers in under false pretences. Readers have expectations. Writers create expectations for readers like a silent and invisible contract or promise. 

For example, let’s pretend we’re in an alternative universe where the new and improved Tannille 2.0 never dropped f-bombs on her blog posts. You are a pearl-clutching goody-goody. Straight As, I bet, and white looks fetching on you. In this pretend world, Tannille 2.0 publishes a novel. You buy the book with gusto and open the first page. Nasty four-letter words leap from the page and bitchslap your virgin eyes. What is this filth? You don’t like this offensive potty trash, it’s not what you signed up for, the writer always wrote so elegantly… so clean. Angry for wasting your money and time on the writer you once admired, you jump on social media to express your distaste to anyone who will listen and leave one-star hate reviews on Good Reads and Amazon. You unfollow Tannille 2.0 and block her. Filthy sinful wench. 

The fault here isn’t with the reader, it’s with the writer, Tannille 2.0. Her online presence isn’t honest. By not swearing, she created a reader expectation — the writer writes clean content. Her book with foul language violated reader expectations like a hooker saying no. The irony is, there are readers who love a great fuck. But Tannille 2.0 failed to attract the “fucking” audience who would love her novel. 

It’s all about understanding your target audience and understanding the expectations you, the writer, have created. Writers are much better off being themselves in the long run. Don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. Don’t shift direction and give your readers a WTF. You promised your audience a genre or tone. The switch-a-roo creates dissatisfaction. Many writers use pen names for this reason. There is no point trying to sell erotica to children, or chick flicks to horror fans. 

A Misalignment of Values Between Reader and Writer

Core values also play a role in writer-reader connections. My last post on writing suggested writers should consider their purpose; do they prefer to piss people off or bring people together? It’s the writer’s choice. Free speech baby. I’m team unity though. Without intending to, this post ruffled feathers, with one reader blocking me before I could even respond to their counter-opinion. I guess the individual, who freely admitted to writing rants, felt rant shamed? 

While I don’t enjoy upsetting anyone, by sharing my opinion, I attracted more followers who align with my values and therefore are probably going to like my writings. My target audience. In the modern era, writers are expected to be on social media. Readers want to know who their favourite authors are as people. Unfortunately, some people won’t like you or what you stand for and that’s life. 

A Misinterpretation of Writer Intent

As writers, we have zero control over how a reader might interpret our writing. Our job is to be as clear as possible with our words. Once we unleash the story into the world, it becomes its own entity. Move over Exorcists. Readers will form their own relationship with the words, read between the lines, and add their own life lens. There is nothing writers can do. Your job is done and the story now belongs to the reader (writers own the copyright for production). The writer’s intent is nothing but a curious footnote. 

Understanding this relationship makes criticism a lot easier to digest. Writers, your story isn’t you. It’s the work you created. Readers, for the most part, are responding to your work, not you as an individual. You’ll still want to cry and swim in your tears from time to time. Chocolate is your friend. 

Takeaway

When you finally face dissatisfaction from a reader or a few, give yourself a pat on the back. Welcome to the club. You made it. It’s a rite of passage. You can’t please everyone. If the dissatisfaction is coming from more than a few, maybe you should consider the reader expectation you set or the quality of your work. Keep in mind, as the creator of the masterpiece, you can’t control how the audience will react. That’s a special bond between readers and the story — nothing to do with you. 

Now go write something fabulous and unleash your next baby into the world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Do You Want Piss People Off or Bring People Together With Your Writing?