The Softer Side of the Tolkien Purist Community
So you got a bad review. Before declaring that you shall never write again, or that whoever it was who reviewed you is the worst person in the world, and telling everyone that you�ve been flamed� stop. Take a few deep breaths.
Repeat after me: I am not my story.
Nothing is perfect. They might just be pointing out small problems, such as grammar and spelling, which perhaps your beta (if you had one), didn�t catch. That�s easily fixed. And for Eru�s sake, if someone points out errors such as spelling of character names, grammar, or formatting, fix them. It doesn�t take long, and why leave up errors that you know are there?
If there are larger issues, such as flow, your writing style, your plot, or your character, that they are questioning� take another deep breath. Consider whether in fact, they may be right. Is the romance hurried? Have you given your heroine too much power, or mischaracterised a canon character? Remember, you can always rewrite.
You may decide, of course, that you think they are wrong. You may like the story just the way it is. That is your choice, although they say that you should be your own worst critic. Perhaps you want to continue, but think about what has been said if you decide later to rewrite the story.
In any case, the correct response to criticism is: Thank you for your comments. Even if the original review was nasty or overly harsh. Accept that not everyone will like your story, take what you find helpful out of the review, and then move on. Complaining about being �flamed� in authors notes, or writing a long email to the author of the review telling her off for criticising you, will not make things any better.
If you get a true flame, and by that I mean a review which says �you suck�, tells you to stop writing altogether, and/or doesn�t give any suggestions about what you need to change, just tells you your story is bad � then ignore it. I repeat: take a few deep breaths, calm down, and ignore it. If offensive language is used, you can either remove the review yourself, if it is anonymous, or contact the moderators if it is not.
If you want to improve, you are going to have to learn to deal with criticism, even if it stings a bit at first. If you don�t want to improve then what are you doing reading this? At any rate, if you only take away one thing from this essay, I�d like it to be this: It�s the internet. Nothing is set in stone, so don�t act like every word is gold and it would kill you to change it.
CHOOSING NAMES
CLICHES: WHAT NOT TO DO
PROOFREADING
ON WRITING STYLES
(AND THE USE OF �ELVISH�)
ON �FLAMES� AND CRITICISM
ON PATHOS AND EMOTION
PLOTLINES AND PLOT DEVICES
BETA READERS LIST
CHALLENGES
SIGN GUESTBOOK
VIEW GUESTBOOK
ENCYLOPEDIA OF ARDA