Thursday 22 March 2012

Budding Novelist Looking for Thicker Skin

Image: 123rf.com
I mentioned a while back that I was starting to write. And wrote a couple of short stories - short being the operative word.

So someone reviewed my short story 'When You're Happy' (which can be found at: http://www.libboo.com/read/when-youre-happy) and gave it two stars (out of five) as it "needed more substance". She claimed that it "has potential and it's such "an interesting idea and story line". All great I hear you mutter...but then she ends with "the characters are underdeveloped, there is no clear picture of who each of them is...go back and work on this..."

Now initially, I thought, cheers for the feedback love I can see what you're getting at. But then I mulled over what she said and I thought, no it's a short story. By definition there isn't always a need to develop characters. their interaction with others, a deep plot etc. It's been a few months since I wrote said piece but I wrote it with a sense of floating in and out memories - it's vague for a reason, it was from the main character's point of view (can't say much more as I'll give the ending away).

Fast forward a few days and yet more time spent mulling over the critique; whilst I still harbored a slight resentment for her not getting what a short story's about (Tess Gerritson faced the same problem - she wrote a short story about her main characters Rizzoli & Isles and received so much criticism about lack of plot etc!) I realized that I had to accept her feedback because if I'm going to put my written words out there, people will either love or hate my work! So I'm going to have to toughen up...and should I write more short stories hope that people understand the concept (wink).