Between You, Me and the Lamp
Post
Day 56: Writing - Should we listen to others?
A long time ago, I was chosen
to compete in a national ten-pin bowling tournament. The question was, did I
want to play in the bronze or silver division. Bronze players played with a
handicap, silver players played without a handicap.
“Choose silver,”
Jean-Pierre, a friend said. “The last thing you want is to lose to someone’s
handicap.”
“In which division are you
playing?” I asked him.
“Gold,” he said.
In my opinion, he was
overestimating himself. While he was not a bad bowler, he was nowhere near good
enough to play with men who scored a 200 average.
“If I’m gonna be beaten, I
want to be beaten by the best,” he told me.
This got me thinking.
Yesterday I posted a writing
sample in a writer’s group and my work got slammed left, right and center. One
or two people had something good to say, but the majority found fault with it.
Then today I saw a writing
sample from another member. To say that it was awful is putting it mildly. Not
only was the piece crawling with typos, the grammar was atrocious and the story
itself seemed to be written by a six-year-old.
Here is an extract from what
she wrote:
I went to bed last night. I lay in bed looking at the ceiling. I couldn’t
sleep. I got up and watched the moon. I couldn’t sleep because my brother was snoring.
I wouldn’t wait for morning to come. My mother was out with her boyfriend.
Do you consider this good
writing?
The other members of the
group, those who had slammed me the previous day had nothing but good to say
about the childish writing. They found it fascinating, captivating and looked
forward to reading the next chapter.
Thinking that I was perhaps
a little biased, because of the bad feedback I had received on my work, I asked
two other people to read the work of the other member. Both their reaction was
more or less the same ... who wrote this crap and how did she dare publish this
online for all to see. Did she actually think this was good writing?
When I told them about my
experience of the previous day they laughed and said “Why you do even bother?
If you want feedback, ask the professionals, don’t bother with amateurs, they
don’t know any better than you do.”
So I did. I asked two well-known
authors, who have sold millions of books how they feel about criticism. Both of
them laughed and said, “If I had listened to others, I never would have
finished my first novel.”
They asked me if I enjoyed
writing. When I said yes, they shrugged and said, “Then keep doing it. Who
cares what anyone else thinks?”
I guess those are words I
have to keep in mind. From what I’ve gathered so far, for some people writing
is fun, for others it’s therapeutic, a way to pass the time, or to hang out
with their imaginary friends. Whatever the reason, if writing is enjoyable ...
go for it.
One more thing to remember
... what’s good for the goose isn’t necessarily good for the gender. There’s no
accounting for taste. Do you think Stephen King, James Patterson, Lee Child or Dan
Brown care about amateurs’ opinion ... no, they have an idea and set to work. We should do the same.
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