Let's Talk About Grace

I know it's been a while since I've posted on my blog. I've been so busy writing books the last two years, the blog has gotten a little neglected. But what I want to talk about today doesn't belong in a book, though it definitely has to do with writing. I thought about the best way to deliver this message last night as I was attempting to fall asleep. I considered a Facebook Live because I feel like it might get a little more attention than a blog post. But I'm not sure I'm ready to put my best face forward just yet. That is, I'm not sure I'm ready to go live and say coherent things to who knows who might be watching. So for now, I'll stick to what I do best and get my thoughts down on "paper" where I can always go back and revise if something doesn't quite come out right.
Last night, I was perusing Amazon as I often do, looking at books in my genre, checking out reviews and rankings and book covers and all of those sorts of things, and a couple of reviews caught my eye. I'm not going to mention the books or the authors here, and I'm not even going to call out the reviewers who seriously need to consider some life changes, but I am going to talk about something that was missing from the reviews in question, and that important item, which seems to be missing more and more from our lives in generally, especially when we are hiding behind screens and keyboards, is grace.

We all need a little grace sometimes. Picture credit: Pixabay

Grace--the ability to give a person a little bit of space, some mercy, to forgive a little or a lot because it's the kind thing to do. That's not Merriam Webster talking or the Bible or even the nagging sound of my mother's voice I sometimes hear in my head when I need to make better choices. That's life telling me that sometimes we all need a little bit of mercy, a little bit of forgiveness, a little bit of "overlooking."
I was reading reviews of some new authors, people who have just started their careers, trying to launch books with little to no funds, I'd guess, no mailing list, no publisher, no social media following. Some of the reviews were so harsh and ugly, it just made me sick. Why do we have to be so hard on each other? If you read a book by a new author, and you don't like it, of course you have the right to tell others what you disliked and possibly warn them from making a purchase of a book they will also have problems with. But one star reviews because a book needs a proofread, or because you found the plot too predictable, just seems spiteful to me.
I have never left a one star review on a book ever, and I have hundreds of reviews posted on Amazon with over 50,000 views. Even when I've read a book that seems absolutely terrible to me, I always find some good to focus on in the review and give at least two stars, often three, because everyone needs hope, everyone deserves to know they are not a complete failure, that they may have hard work ahead of them, but that doesn't mean their dreams are shattered all over the floor.

Why would we want to make anyone else feel this way? Picture credit: Pixabay

Grace. Why not come to the review page with a handful of grace? Why not sprinkle a little bit of sunshine in a world full of anger and madness?
I've been writing long enough that I realize that my style might not be everyone's cup of tea, and that's okay. Occasionally, I will get an ugly review, but I have enough good ones to let those others go. I do read every single one of them, though, and I try to learn what I can from the bad ones, though, for the most part, there usually isn't much to learn except that people can be angry about books sometimes for reasons that seem irrational to me. In the case of these other authors whose work I looked at yesterday, I read some of what they wrote, made some downloads, will finish and review, and when I do, my reviews will remember that I am talking to real people with feelings. I get that reviews are for other readers and not for the author, but that doesn't mean we can't be kind when we communicate our feelings, knowing the author will most likely read every word.
Grace--that's all I'm asking for in this world of keyboard warriors who feel invincible behind their screens. If you take those screens away, you'll see people just as frightened of criticism as the ones they are attacking. And face to face with harsh reviewers, I'm sure they would also appreciate a little grace.

Why Reviews Are Stupid (Sometimes)

Recently, I received two 3-star reviews on my book Cordia's Will: A Civil War Story of Love and Loss. Don't worry--this blog isn't a rant about how everyone is being mean to me and judging my writing too harshly. In fact, the second review was actually quite helpful.  I appreciated the writer's candor and his insight. You see, it is possible to write a review and do it in such a way that you are not only helping readers decide whether or not they want to read the book, you are also being helpful to the writer.  The other review, however, retold the entire book, including plot twists, and included comments that were supposed to be derogatory that were actually compliments, such as this gem:
"[The scenes that depict war] read like they were copied from the history pages..."
Uhm, thank you? It is historical fiction after all....

How many stars must a book get for you to choose to read it?

This got me thinking. What have readers had to say about other books--best sellers and the like--that, if the authors read them, would make then laugh or cringe?  After all, one little 3-star review on Stephanie Meyer's page is not that big a deal. Put it on my page amongst my other three or four reviews, well, it tends to stick out.  So, I did some research and I found some examples of ridiculous reviews for literatures heavy hitters.  See if you can identify what book each reviewer** was talking about and check your answers at the bottom.

1) "I have to give it a one star because the book in its narrative is lacking so much in basic reality that it is flat-out sloppy.  The 'unreliable narrator' style, typical in books written from the perspective of children, mentally challenged individuals, substance abusers and others of this sort is what I'm referring to."

2)"This book is quite possibly the most insipid novel I have ever read in my life. Why this book is so highly treasured by society is beyond me. It is 345 pages of nothing.  The characters are like wispy shadows of something that could have been interesting, the language that could be beautiful ends up becoming difficult to decipher and led me more than once to skip over entire paragraphs because I am tired of having to stumble through them only to emerge unsatisfied and the plot is non-existent..."

3)"If I'd enjoyed the book more, I would have found it easier to suspend my disbelief, but as it was, I was constantly irked by questions and inconsistencies."

4)"[The author] is not a bad writer. She has the ability to string words together. Unfortunately, she lacks any kind of flair. There was no original description; no truly evocative language.

5)"[The book] aimlessly stumbled about, tripped over its own feet, and then proceeded to face plant into the ground like a drunken frat boy at a keg party. I was not amused."

6) "... as the book wore on...I began to realise that I was growing more and more bored and found myself struggling to read on. "

7)" ... it's just so f--ing dumb....If you happen to be a 40-50 year old (white) man, and like reading about '6 figures,' then I'll understand you liking this book."

8)" I don't care if it is some great story about surviving in a war zone or some [bs] like that. None of these characters really expressed the complexities or debated the moral dilemmas involved in surviving the Civil War."

9) "As always, I like the author's narrative voice, but as a character sketch of a marriage, this wasn't quite sharp enough or funny enough or emotional enough for my taste."

10)"There were too many characters to keep track of. And for each character, I only knew them through their work.  There was no emotional development of characters, no seeing their feelings."

11)"This book was utter failure to me in respect of a horror novel.  Didn't scare me, nah, not at all, didn't even make me wince."

12)"I'm not going to comment on the literary shortcomings of this book, the cliches, the painfully long narrative, the fact that the characters will not think about an issue for months, but then suddenly it becomes important again. Smarter people than me have already said all this."

Okay--how many of them did you figure out? Some had some pretty obvious clues, others not.  Here are the answers: 1) Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain 2)Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen 3) The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 4) Twilight by Stephanie Meyer 5) Divergent by Veronica Roth 6) The Fault In Our Stars by John Green 7) The Firm by John Grisham 8) Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell 9)Landline by Rainbow Rowell (Goodreads fiction book of the year) 10) The Hunt for Red October by Tom Clancy 11) The Shining by Stephen King 12) Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by JK Rowling

So, what's my point?  Well, for writers it's this: Don't let one annoying review get you down. If you getting the same sort of comments over and over again, then it's probably something to pay attention to. If it's just one person's opinion, as another brilliant writer, Taylor Swift once said, "Shake it off, shake it off!" For readers, let me just say this, the person who wrote that book is probably going to read your review. Would you say it their face?  Would you say it in those words?  With that tone? If you are reading a book by a little known author, chance are writing is not their full time gig. They might be a firefighter or police officer, or pastor by day--or a teacher, like me--just trying to get their heart and soul out there for the world to see.  So, while I would never ask anyone to alter their opinion, if you feel it is necessary to be negative, do so in a classy way.  You'll get your opinion across in a way that both the writer and other potential readers will appreciate.  And there's nothing stupid about that!

**All of these reviews are from Goodreads.com and the opinion that they are stupid is solely my own, though you may agree. I left the names of to protect the anonymity of the poster, even though they are posted in a public domain.**