Thoughts on accepting critical feedback/reviews

See this essay for some follow-up thoughts on this topic.

After my musings on being on the critic's end of things, and after having gotten more book reviews than usual over the course of a book tour, I've been doing some thinking about how it feels to be on the receiving end of critical feedback. I'd previously written a post about it in a Goodreads group, and then followed it up with another post the other day. So I thought I'd share the contents of both posts here and expand on their ideas a bit.

The audiobook is out!

 

I WAS NOT PREPARED. The Thunder Girl audiobook went through Audible's quality control much faster than I expected, and it is now OUT and available for you to download on Audible or iTunes!

If you prefer audiobooks over text, now's your chance to get acquainted with the fun-filled world of alternate-history-1894-with-robots-and-dinosaurs! 

And if you've already read the book and enjoyed it, you'll love the audiobook because Ben Fife does an excellent job bringing the characters to life. His Hermes makes me laugh out loud. It's the perfect time to experience the adventure all over again!

Easter message

This Easter season, I'd like to express how grateful I am for my Captain, Savior, and Brother Jesus Christ for all that He has done for me personally. I have felt His help and guidance through all of my challenges. He has healed my wounded and weary soul and brought new life to me. Even in the challenges I still face, I can feel him right there alongside me, laboring with me to make things better and endure trials.

How grateful I am for the Atonement He finished so that He could be the ultimate, perfect Empathizer and Healer to every single one of God's children. Because of Him, nobody has to go through anything alone.

Countless times I have prayed for the Savior's grace to help me through a moment, and immediately the peace, strength, and clarity has come. I love how He is right there with His hand outstretched for us to take it and be lifted to a higher place. I know that with His help, I will conquer all the battles I'm meant to fight in this life and return triumphant to my Father in Heaven.

#PostOfChrist

How to review a book you didn't like

Part three of my musings on how to give helpful and fair, yet kind, polite, and uplifting feedback on writing.

This part deals entirely with public reviews of books, and specifically how to tactfully review a book you did not like. By "public reviews" I am mainly referring to reviews you post on websites like Amazon and Goodreads, reviews that the author and everyone who looks up the book are going to see. Reviews that you post on your (professional) blog or social media are in a slightly different class, because these reviews will generally only be seen by either a) people who follow you or b) people who do an Internet search specifically for reviews of a given book. These reviews are not as prominent or far-reaching, but I will touch upon them briefly.

More thoughts on constructive criticism

The art of giving good literary feedback has still been the object of my study and ponderings lately, and after I wrote yesterday's post I found myself with more that I wanted to say and explore! So rather than edit the previous post and basically make it twice as long as before, I figured a part 2 was in order. In this post, I'll be talking about more ways to exercise tact when giving feedback.

Thoughts on constructive criticism

(This blog post is adapted from something I wrote in a group on Goodreads. It focuses mainly on giving con-crit, because receiving it could be a whole other essay in and of itself.)

As I network with other writers, I've been trying to find ways to give constructive criticism in a way that is honest and fair, but doesn't contribute to the writer feeling crummy about their work and discouraged. I think it's an important topic.

When I was younger, I thought giving constructive criticism was pretty straightforward: all you had to do was tell somebody everything that was wrong with their writing so they would know what to fix. Right?

BZZZT. NO. WRONG.

Pokemon-ish thoughts

I've just been sitting here, thinking about Pokemon, because that is the kind of person I am, and I had some game develop-y musings that I wanted to share. And I couldn't think of a better place for doing so than my blog, which is supposed to hold my musings.

They're doing Diamond and Pearl Version remakes! Yaaaaay! Generation IV holds a fair bit of nostalgia for me; it was the first generation after I graduated high school, and it came out when I was still trying to figure out how to adult, juggling college with embarking on my illustration career. It was also the first generation where, thanks to the magic of Wi-Fi, I was able to connect with more Pokemon fans than ever before, and Platinum was the game where I came closest to ever completing my National Pokedex. (Nowadays, that's something I'd only attempt if I'm really, really bored.) My local Pokemon League had disbanded shortly after the start of Gen III, leaving me a lonesome nerd for quite a few years, until technology improved!