Better than poetry

Today's Mood: Amused. Today's Music: Nothing--no power. Today's Writing. Nothing--I was dealing with downed trees and and spoiling food. Today's Quote:

The rational pride of an author may be offended rather than flattered by vague indiscriminate praise; but he cannot, he should not, be indifferent to the fair testimonies of private and public esteem. - Edward Gibbon

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Today, amidst the storm debris, came a self-addressed sealed envelope in the mail. Goes to show you never know what sea treasure a storm leaves--or that the mail really does get delivered come rain, shine, or high winds and lightening. Anyway, I opened it with some degree of angst (don't you just love that word? Angst.) It was the paid critique for the SouthWest Writers Contest. I had submitted in the Young Adult Fiction category, a synopsis and the first 20 pages of Black Dragon. The critique sheet looked professional, specifying hook/opening, protagonist, setting/descriptions, plot line, antagonist, dialogue, voice, secondary characters, manuscript presentation, synopsis, and then suggestions for the author on a separate sheet.

I started reading the sheet and was gratified right away with the critique's first comment--"Excellent opening. This person seems to have built in tone and pace. Something one usually has to work hard for." The review went on in a similar, very gratifying manner, right down to the comment under synopsis (remember me bemoaning how hard I worked on that? And what headaches it gave me?) "The synopsis is clear--makes the reader hurry to read the manuscript." Excellent! Exactly what I wanted it to do!

Then comes the suggestions for the author. It says "See typed page." Okay, I turn to the next page. Here is what it said:

Dear Entry #31;

I am floored (cliche) with this manuscript It not only tells a great story but is so well written that I had to catch my breath at the sheer beauty of the written words.

You not only know how to write but how to keep the reader turning pages. It appears that your style is not something you have struggled with but is a natural God given talent. I do not believe you could write badly even if you wanted to. Your work is even better than poetry.

If you are not already a recognized published author you should be. There has to be many awards out there waiting for your work

Good Luck

I admit it; I laughed. In fact I laughed hard. Especially at the lines I had to catch my breath at the sheer beauty of the written words--and Your work is even better than poetry.

Now, I believe in my writing. I believe in my novel. I think it is a story worth telling, and I think I tell it well. However. Writing is something I struggle to do well. I work hard at it. And I can DEFINITELY write badly--even when I don't want to.

When I brought the critique to my writing group tonight, I had a hard time reading it without breaking into laughter--and they were almost annoyed with me! They couldn't understand why I would react the way I did. So am I just "uncomfortable with someone praising my work"?

Maybe. But I did okay with the page that had the specifics. I could buy that page. Granted, it was ALL good--nothing I needed to work on. Well, except the suggestion to write it in third person past tense (which I DO NOT agree with by the way). The only other suggestions for improvement included not using bold typeface for the title and putting in page numbers.

When praise seems too over-the-top, too extravagant, I have a hard time believing it. I get that the reviewer liked it. I'm GLAD that she/he liked it (and they didn't even know me so they didn't have any reason to pretend to like it). But the cynical part of me just can't buy the "take my breath away" and "better than poetry". After all, I've sent it to over a dozen publishers/agents and not one of them had that reaction.

So while I can take hope from it, I don't think I'll quit my day job just yet.