Jump!
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 6:20PM 
Word count: 361 Reading time: 1-2 minutes
Kingsley Amis said of Dylan Thomas: “A pernicious figure, one who has helped to get Wales and Welsh poetry a bad name…and done lasting harm to both.”
Paul Theroux reviewed Erica Jong’s novel Fear of Flying in a similar tone: “This crappy novel, misusing vulgarity to the point where it becomes purely foolish, picturing women as a hapless organ animated by the simplest ridicule, and devaluing imagination in every line…represents everything that is to be loathed in American fiction today.”
That’s the thing about writing – no matter how good you are, someone will disapprove and will not mind broadcasting their contempt. It’s very much a leap of faith to work and hope that someone, some day, somewhere, will eventually value what has taken you months or years to produce.
When you decide to write, you have to grow a thick hide so that people’s thoughtless comments don’t stop you in your tracks. I gave one of my first short stories to an online critique group and an American writer replied, in clearly challenging tones, that he’d never heard of the bird called a crimson rosella. Because that one detail was inauthentic to him, he took it as grounds to tear apart the rest of the work. I shrank at his criticism – for a little while. Then I quit the group and continued writing for the benefit of one close friend and my darling husband. Nervously I sent the next two stories to a competition where they received minor awards. The point is, if I hadn’t been resilient and just a little bit brave, I might have stopped writing altogether.
Imagine if Dylan Thomas had let Amis’s criticism stop him or if Jong had tossed writing because of Theroux’s fine sensibilities. Maybe you’re the next literary sensation but how will you know if you don’t just jump in and do it? And keep doing it…
Soren Kierkegaard said, “To dare is to lose one’s footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose one’s life.”
Do unkind comments from any of your early readers haunt you still? What helps you dare to continue?
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Photos by: Oleg Kozlov (above) & Kafusfoto
Reader Comments (6)
Absolutely. Yeah - everybody can't and shouldn't like the same thing. Criticism is hard to hear but it's just one person's view. I like your stories. So there.
Thanks, Lynn! Encouragement has the opposite effect, no? It diminishes the criticism to its proper perspective and lets us march on with fresh energy.
In researching this blog I came across this quote from one of Isaac Asimov's letters:
"Like all writers, I fume at bad reviews, and a fellow writer (Lester del Rey) once gaave me some very good advice:
'When you read a review,' he said, 'at the very first unfavourable adjective, read no more and throw it away.'
I have done that faithfully, and, as a result, I have no bad reviews to send you.
I also throw away good reviews, by the way, but I read them first."
I never used to let anyone read my work - I'd write it, work on it, and if I thought it was good enough, I'd submit it somewhere. That worked well for me - sometimes it got accepted; other times it didn't, usually with reasons outlining why. So, all good.
Then I made the mistake, just a few years ago, of workshopping a couple of WIPs to a couple of groups - one online, one offline. I had completely negative feedback from both and actually stopped writing them. They loved the other writers' workshopped material, and I lost confidence completely, believing I was useless. I haven't recovered that confidence yet, not at all. Yet if I'd never workshopped either of those novels and done things in the tried and tested way, who knows what would have happened.
So yes, I'm too thin-skinned.
I can take and build on criticism from publishers/editors, but I think that's because it's constructive. With writing groups, the negativity isn't always constructive - same with book reviews, especially in the digital age. I don't read them.
Hi Liz, thanks for stopping by.
Groups and workshops - when they're bad, they're horrid.
It's amazing how some of them turn into love-fests for certain people's writing while the rest of us are treated like poor cousins (at best). For me the difference between now and then is that my skin has toughened a lot. I get out earlier.
Actually it's a moot point these days. I've stopped workshopping my manuscripts. Having feedback from one or two people whose opinions I respect is worth a thousand workshops.
The best revenge is success, no? You have an enviable history of prizes and publication.
I've really enjoyed the short fiction of yours that I've read. Don't look back!
Maggie
It would have taken him two seconds to google. Crimson rosellas exist, and they're glorious! Clearly he was an idiot of the first order and his opinions on your work (except for the nice things he said) should be entirely disregarded!
Thanks, Alyssa
He was the group leader and what he didn't know, didn't matter. To him anyway. He made a big impression on me though - I can't even remember his name. But I remember the lesson!
Maggie