Speechless
Mar. 25th, 2011 11:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
keiramarcosI rarely agree to critique or beta for writer's I have to look in the face. You might ask yourself why... well the truth is that I can be an extremely critical beta and in the past I've lost friends over it. I had the unfortunate opportunity earlier in the month to receive the second draft of a novel of a local writer. She asked for "detailed feedback" if I had any "free time". Right. I didn't want to do it but I felt like I really couldn't say no without looking like a snotty, horrible person. I am sort of a snotty, horrible person but I do try to be decent to people I'm friendly with.
Her mechanics are a thing of beauty -- she structures scenes well, her chapters are rounded and well developed and her plot is exceptional. The problem? By chapter four I wanted to murder her "hero". By chapter six, I wanted the bad guy to WIN. By the time the love scene rolled around, I was convinced the heroine needed rescuing from the hero and it didn't help that the entire scene had a layer of dub-con all over it. The hero was smug, misogynistic, and thoroughly irredeemable in my mind.
So, I try to praise her for the parts I did like -- only to have her ask questions about the things I didn't want to discuss. There is no delicate way to put this, really. How do you say : "Your hero is an asshat, your heroine is a doormat, and your villain had every right to want to kill them both."
Right, so I try to be diplomatic which isn't easy for me (as you all might have guessed) and I frame my impressions of the characters as "this is just my opinion and I could be very wrong". Right, well, we aren't exactly friends and she isn't someone I hang out with often so she didn't quite get the fact that I was trying to avoid insulting her and also didn't want to contradict the four other people who had read the book and praised her to the high heavens for her character development. I tell her, "I just didn't connect with your hero the way I felt I should have to really enjoy the book."
Her response: (insert dramatic huff) "I shouldn't have asked you to read it. I mean you're just a romance writer. It isn't like you understand literature."
Which, granted, pissed me off but I was really too shocked to respond. I happen to a know a great fucking deal about my craft and while I do tend to write romance -- I'm capable of writing in a variety of genres. I write romance because it PAYS THE BILLS.
Snotty Chick Lit Writer said: "Oh, get over yourself. You're lucky she wasted her time on you to begin with."
Erotica Writer bought me some cookies and now we're planning the ritual burning of the copy of Local Writer's novel that I have sitting at home.
Her mechanics are a thing of beauty -- she structures scenes well, her chapters are rounded and well developed and her plot is exceptional. The problem? By chapter four I wanted to murder her "hero". By chapter six, I wanted the bad guy to WIN. By the time the love scene rolled around, I was convinced the heroine needed rescuing from the hero and it didn't help that the entire scene had a layer of dub-con all over it. The hero was smug, misogynistic, and thoroughly irredeemable in my mind.
So, I try to praise her for the parts I did like -- only to have her ask questions about the things I didn't want to discuss. There is no delicate way to put this, really. How do you say : "Your hero is an asshat, your heroine is a doormat, and your villain had every right to want to kill them both."
Right, so I try to be diplomatic which isn't easy for me (as you all might have guessed) and I frame my impressions of the characters as "this is just my opinion and I could be very wrong". Right, well, we aren't exactly friends and she isn't someone I hang out with often so she didn't quite get the fact that I was trying to avoid insulting her and also didn't want to contradict the four other people who had read the book and praised her to the high heavens for her character development. I tell her, "I just didn't connect with your hero the way I felt I should have to really enjoy the book."
Her response: (insert dramatic huff) "I shouldn't have asked you to read it. I mean you're just a romance writer. It isn't like you understand literature."
Which, granted, pissed me off but I was really too shocked to respond. I happen to a know a great fucking deal about my craft and while I do tend to write romance -- I'm capable of writing in a variety of genres. I write romance because it PAYS THE BILLS.
Snotty Chick Lit Writer said: "Oh, get over yourself. You're lucky she wasted her time on you to begin with."
Erotica Writer bought me some cookies and now we're planning the ritual burning of the copy of Local Writer's novel that I have sitting at home.
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no subject
Date: 2011-03-25 08:07 pm (UTC)I've had the same problem as an editor. If you ask me for feedback you're going to get it. You may not like it, but there's no reason to be rude about. Do not ask if you do not want to know!
Enjoy the bonfire! Roast marshmallows and make s'mores!