Comments on: Writing Excuses Season 3 Episode 5: How to Take Criticism

By: Jenk

Jenk — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 14:06:26 +0000

My mother is a fantastic author- she’s had a novel that was the NY Times Notable Book of the Year, O. Henry Award, etc. But of course when she was starting out, she was getting rejected on the scale of many young unpublished and agentless wirters. It got her frustrated, of course, and she thought about doing something different with her life. Then she pulled herself up by her own bootstraps and decided to embrace the rejections in an interesting way; she wallpapered her study with them. Every time a rejection letter came in the mail, she would have me and my sister help her to paste it in place like a jigsaw puzzle. Then (this was before computers, just imagine) she hand-wrote her novel on gigantic sheets of graph paper. As each page was finished, she tacked it up on the wall, covering a section of the rejection letters. When the novel was finished, there was not a rejection letter in sight, and she sold the novel in about 3 months.

By: Dealing with Criticism « Paige Bruce

Dealing with Criticism « Paige Bruce — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 21:42:32 +0000

[...] you’re looking for more excellent coping methods, take a look at the latest Writing Excuses episode on dealing with criticism. Their timing is certainly appropriate, and I think it’s an issue that every creative [...]

By: Larry Correia

Larry Correia — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:15:40 +0000

Great advice.

The part about the one star reviews is spot on. No matter how good your work is, somebody is going to absolutely savage you just because they’re jerks.

For example: Moby Dick. There was way too much whale stuff in this book. Or at least there was in the first chapters that I kinda skimmed. Whales are fat and they eat plankton. Planton is stupid and so is Herman Melville! ONE STAR!

I’ve got a real hard time with this one because I’m prickly and like to argue with random folks on the internet. It is totally true, you can get dozens of great reveiws, and then you get one guy who picks you apart, and it ruins your whole day. I’ve got a handful of alpha readers that I trust, and nobody else sees anything until I’m really happy with it.

By: Guerry

Guerry — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:17:19 +0000

Thanks John! I’ve already revised and workshopped the changes. After another round, I’ll resubmit.

Much thanks,

Guerry

By: John Brown

John Brown — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 04:41:36 +0000

Guerry,

Editors (and slush readers) at pro magazines gets hundreds of submissions each month. They do NOT read to the end of the great bulk of the submissions. They can’t. Nor do they want to. They read until something bumps them out. They are reading to filter the bulk of the stories out. The fact that they read to the end of yours says something. It says your beginning was good enough to keep them going. So rejoice, look at your beginning, see if it really is slow/boring/whatever, and if it is, revise and resubmit, saying something along the lines of “thanks for your feedback on this story. I’ve revised the beginning, and think I have something that starts much better. Please let me know if this will work for your magazine.” Or whatever feels right to you. You don’t get those kinds of letters unless you’re almost ehre.

By: Mike Barker

Mike Barker — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 01:23:58 +0000

Thanks all! Appreciated hearing from you about the transcripts. I have to admit, I hadn’t even thought about searching, but that’s an important point. We don’t (yet) have good search methods for podcasts… so how are you going to find that podcast where Dan denied that he was a serial killer, anyway?

By: Raethe

Raethe — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:58:20 +0000

Mike: I don’t make a habit of reading them but I do look them over occasionally.

Guerry: My suggestion (not that I have any firsthand knowledge whatsoever) would be to query other magazines first, and if they turn you down, go back to the one that gave you comments and try again. You’d probably want to mention that in your cover letter if they want a cover letter.

But no, I probably wouldn’t send it eight times…

By: Rafael

Rafael — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:05:10 +0000

Thank you Mr. Brown. I’ll check out the story ASAP.

By: S.M.

S.M. — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:22:40 +0000

Mike, while i don’t read them every time I do look them over probably two of every three podcasts. Thanks!

By: Dan Wells

Dan Wells — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:27:40 +0000

Mike, can you email me? We have a question.