Sticks, Stones, and Bad Reviews

[rj_anderson]

No worries about that subject line, I haven't personally had any bad reviews yet (phew!). But then, I've hardly had any reviews yet at all... and I've been thinking about how to handle it when the comments really start coming in.

To any of my fellow writers who may read this, whether you're ficcers or in a critique group working on getting published or (especially) if you're an established pro -- how do you deal with reviews? Do you:

A) read them avidly, good and bad, trying to see what you can learn from them? (And if so, have they actually taught you anything, or just alternately exhilarated and depressed you?)

B) read only the good ones, and ignore the bad? (And if so, how do you manage to do this?)

C) read no reviews whatsoever? (And if so, why?)

I'm still undecided about the whole thing myself. I love hearing nice things about my writing (who doesn't?) but I also don't want to turn a deaf ear to any advice that could help me improve. On the other hand, as has often been said, "reviews are for readers", not the author, and many authors feel that reading them is really not helpful on a practical level and is only likely to discourage you and hurt your confidence in your next project. I'm not sure what the argument is for reading no reviews at all, though.

Anyway, if you have thoughts on this subject, as an author or a reader or a critic, I'd be glad to hear them.

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I read the first few avidly, but realized soon that, for the sake of my sanity, I'd have to ignore. I get a fairly good idea of what to work on more from my reader FB itself (based on questions they ask, etc.) So at this point I pretty much try to ignore the whole kaboodle.

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

That's a good point about the reader FB -- if something's unclear, it's as likely to come out in a positive review as a negative one, because if a reader really loves your story they want to understand it better. Which is a much nicer way to find out than some reviewer complaining that such-and-such a plot twist came out of left field or that so-and-so's motivation seemed nonexistent.

Thanks for that perspective -- I'd never thought of that!