Thoughts On Taking Criticism
These last few days have put a lot of interesting thoughts into my head, particularly on the issue of how to take criticism. I consider this to be a writer’s best skill aside from talent, because how you react to what others say about you or your writing will have an influence on how you are perceived by others, and will say a lot about who you are as a writer. Take my recent discussion and criticism of self-publishing and the dozens of responses there (some of which have been removed by one of the authors, which I have saved primarily because they were interesting, particularly in this discussion here). What is interesting about that particular post are the kinds of reactions taken against what I wrote: some were relatively calm and collected and were more interested in debating the issue, some were vehemently opposed, so much so as to make personal attacks, and then there were some who seemed to be unclear on how they wanted to react, deleting posts or generally making rude comments and then attempting more rational discussions elsewhere (and these are general observations, not hints at particular individuals) There is only one individual who has had any useful impact on me in this discussion. This person has acted in a way that I think should be a model for people in that particular industry (with some minor exceptions, which are mostly irrelevant). Instead of attacking me personally for my criticisms of an industry s/he ardently supports, s/he debated me on it, seemingly attempting to get at the crux of the issue. To be fair, I find myself agreeing very much with this individual on many points, and disagreeing with her/him on others, and s/he seems more like the kind of person that could change my mind on the issue of self-publishing than many of the others that have been a part of the discussion. Why? The mostly level-headed approach and the ability to tackle the issue without resorting to reducing discussions to the I’m-high-and-mighty form, or feeling the need to make unsubstantiated claims of validation, etc. And this is interesting, because it says a lot about how this individual was able to take the criticism, and how writers should take criticism in general. The reality is that no matter what kind of writer you are, you are going to get criticized. Even great writers get hit with negative comments. They either shrug them off, get irritated and blast the critic, or let it consume them from the inside out. And published, successful writers have exhibited all of those reactions; some of them get away with the more nasty comments, and others don’t. Those that react negatively, who attack or let criticism consume them, are those who probably shouldn’t be attempting to write publicly in the first place. It hints at an insecurity, a deep fissure within the self that suggests how mutable an individual can be in the face of a negative comment. And reactions do have weight on how one is perceived. I think, here, of the Cole A. Adams story, in which an author got so upset about being criticized that he basically goaded the critic into committing suicide. Obviously that hasn’t happened here, but there certainly have been some bitter, angry individuals who have seen fit to make personal attacks instead of either ignoring the criticism or tackling it in a more level-headed manner. And like Mr. Adams, these aren’t people I could see myself ever working with, even if I were more interested in the industry they support. But I don’t suspect most of them care about that, much like Mr. Adams probably doesn’t care that a lot of people no longer want to work with him (or maybe he does). The point is that criticism doesn’t go away because you get upset about it; it remains, always. But if you can’t take the criticism, why be in a particular industry at all, whether it be music, acting, or writing? You can’t avoid it unless you keep yourself private and never let your work be viewed by people who may potentially criticize you for it. But maybe it’s just me. Maybe it’s okay to react in the way that some authors have in the past. What do you all think? Where do you draw the line between acceptable behavior and acting childishly?
SF/F Links: A June Roundup
I have way too many interesting links for you all, but it’s been a rather active month (May and June combined). So here goes: Yodle Local talks about some science fiction staples that are becoming real life. The invisibility cloak is particularly awesome. Warren Ellis rips on Asimov’s three laws of robotics. Pretty funny! Orion’s Arm lists some exceptionally useful worldbuilding links. You should definitely check them out if you’re interested in that sort of thing. KSU has an interesting chart and brief explanation of the various schools of literary criticism. Even if you’re not into that sort of thing, you might want to check it out anyway. Interesting stuff. Have Mac Will Blog lists ten words you probably don’t know. I don’t know any of them, that’s for sure. Really obscure and bizarre! PopCrunch lists the ten most disturbing books of all time. I haven’t read most of these, but some of the ones I have I don’t agree with. Still, it’s an interesting list of equally interesting books. Beer and SciFi lists ten science fiction movies for the thinking man. I now have a few more must-see movies on my list. Brown University puts together a host of articles about cyberpunk that might be worth checking out. Simon Haynes talks about plotting. Really in-depth, by the way. If you write novels, you might want to read that post. SciFi Watch lists five terms that science fiction coined. All good stuff. SciFi Wire lists seven unfilmable science fiction books. That’s not to say that Hollywood won’t try… And that’s it for this edition. Hope you found them useful!
Reader Question: Video Game Plots and Successful Fantasy Novels
(This question is yet another whose questioner I forgot to write down. Please, if you asked this, let me know in the comments so you can get credit. My apologies for not putting your name in the post as I was working on it.) The full question was: Has there ever been a fantasy book series to pull off the “save the world by collecting a group of shiny things” plot, or is that an exclusive video game schtick? This is a tough one primarily because I have not read enough fantasy novels (as in non-graphic books) to be able to say yes or no with enough certainty to be completely comfortable. My guess is that there has yet to be a fantasy book series that uses a video game plot successfully. I could be wrong, but it seems like those sorts of plots are unfortunately the domain of more visually-based mediums (video games, TV shows, movies, graphic novels, etc.). You could, perhaps, count Harry Potter, which uses the last two books to hunt down what might be considered as “shiny things” (horcruxes are certainly not “shiny” in a traditional sense, but do hold significant value for the characters). Beyond this, however, I think it is safe to say that a treasure-hunting save-the-world plot is more comfortable in a visual medium. Why do I think this? Because these kinds of plots don’t always have strong connections to the characters by default, which means it makes a novelization rather difficult for the reader to connect to. That’s not to say it’s not possible, just that the stories I am familiar with intentionally place the viewer/player in the center, allowing them to forge their own connections to the world by actually doing the searching and world saving. Novels are, generally speaking, exterior products: the characters are other people (imaginary people, usually) and thus must act as intermediaries in some way for the reader (i.e. they have to be the connecting point to the world). And these plots do seem to suffer from a sort of ridiculous repetitiveness. So many video games and television shows essentially recycle the same basic plots and simply change the names and maps to make it seem different. They are still entertaining, but that’s not really the point. Getting to the point, I don’t think that video games own this plot, per se. Graphic novels are quite successful at using similar concepts, and really you wouldn’t need to go much farther than Dragonball or Dragonball Z (though their plots do wander quite a bit). Beyond this, though, I don’t feel like I know enough to make any logical, (partially) absolutist claims. I fell out of the gaming community at about the same time as I fell out of the graphic novel community, so I’ve missed quite a lot. If anyone reading this has any suggestions of either successful or at least interesting fantasy novels which have used the treasure-hunting/save-the-world plot, please leave them here in the comments. I’m curious to see what people identify with this style and whether there are books I’m forgetting. Thanks! —————————- If you have a question for me about science fiction, fantasy, writing, or something related, whether silly or serious, let me know by either leaving a comment here or anywhere, sending an email to arconna[at]yahoo[dot]com, or tweeting me your question to @shaunduke. If you enjoyed this post, feel free to stumble it, digg it, tweet it, or plug it on your blog!