The Writer Will Take Your Questions Now (#258) -- Negative Feedback

How do you take negative feedback from a story and have you ever agreed with negative feedback?

I cry and scream and throw a hissy fit usually.

Of course not, but sometimes I'd love to.

Any feedback is good feedback, I feel. Like so many others writers have said before, if anyone cares enough about my work to get in touch with me about it, that's a win, whether they praise it or criticize it.

Have I ever agreed with it? Occasionally, but not to the extend of the one making the criticism. For example, when I was writing Gene Simmons Dominatrix (no apostrophe, I know, not my call), several reviewers lamented the T&A factor of the book taking such a forefront. Well, I would have preferred less of that as well as a writer, freeing me to delve into character and plot, but those were the parameters I was given to write. If someone is paying you to write a sonnet, be a professional and don't try to write an epic narrative of rhyming couplets. Luckily, as the book progressed, we were able to move beyond that stereotype bad girl image of the book and really hit the stuff the writer in my wanted to focus on. But had I started it that way, well, for one thing, I wouldn't have kept the job. So it's a matter of doing your job regardless of both the positive and negative feedback.