INTERACTION

Tilton's reviewed it at Locus but i'm posting this via my phone and have no idea how to include a link.

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http://jimsteel.wordpress.com/

Just realised I made an unintentional rock'n'roll pun there. Sorry!

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http://jimsteel.wordpress.com/

Thanks for both!

Still waiting on mine.

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Neil Williamson
www.neilwilliamson.org.uk

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http://jimsteel.wordpress.com/

Well they say you're doing something right when you start getting bad reviews...

It was good enough to get published in a great magazine, and it's got awesomely cool art that someone made just for your story, and you can point to it and say "I wrote this!" There are always people out there who won't like something, and sometimes the things they point to as problems help us with the next stories we write, and sometimes they don't. Remember how chuffed you were when you got to hold the issue in your own two hands, and remind yourself that that's the top prize right there. Everything else is, pardon the pun, out of your hands

(If you have more or less than two hands, I apologize for the assumption )

I know, of course... the whole review's kinda that way. Guess it just didn't tickle his fancy this time.

Matthew - it's almost impossible to get wall-to-wall wonderful reviews because reviewers (particularly amateur reviewers) bring their own agenda to the table and frequently don't make the menu very clear. And even professional reviewers like to use your work as trampoline to bounce their egos off.

On the whole I've been pretty lucky over the many years that I've been writing and the good has usually outweighed the bad. But I think you have to examine what reviewers say and if they make a valid point, take it on-board and move on. What else can you do? It takes a considerable amount of time and concentration to write a story, novel, screenplay etc. but a quick web-page review can be knocked out in minutes. They have no idea how painful it can be for a writer to get a dismissive phrase relegating them to the junk pile. As the American Screenwriters Guild banner says, "Where were you when the page was blank?"

We all know that nothing's ever perfect. Paul Valery said "a poem is never finished, merely abandoned" and we try to get as close to "finished" if we can. That's the job.

Ignore comments with no real explanation or analysis. Get on with the writing. That's what you do well. The rest is noise. And remember that some of these reviewers are basically nerds with no concept of delicacy, emotional depth, or anything that isn't a sign-posted plot-point.

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Jim

Oh Jim, dissing nerds on the message board of the UK's leading SF magazine, that's harsh.

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http://trumpetville.wordpress.com
http://ttapress.com/blackstatic/casenotesblog/

Sorry, Pete.

Most people who know me would sign me up as a fully-qualified nerd! I was cleaning the contacts on Apple ][ circuit boards with a rubber (as in eraser) before most of you lot were born!

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Jim

Too late now Jim. Jean Luc has already revoked your holodeck privileges for the month

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http://trumpetville.wordpress.com
http://ttapress.com/blackstatic/casenotesblog/

Oh shit! Does that mean I'll have to have real sex for several weeks? That really affects my Skyrim response times.

Actually, I've written lots of dialogue for Patrick in the past and I'm sure I could persuade him to un-revoke me. Well, slightly sure. Teeny bit sure.

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Jim