I tend to view YA novels and writing through rose colored glasses – very idealistically, if you will.
I always romanticize novels, even if they don’t deserve it. When I hate a book, it takes me a moment to admit to hating it. It takes me a while to get over the fact that someone felt the need to write this book – that this is a story someone had to tell. And then I think of all the revisions, and query letters, and line edits that went into the book, and even though I wish I’d never read it, I develop an odd appreciation of it.
My cousin does not have this problem. She’s a reader only, so if the read isn’t enjoyable, she will freely bash the book. This has helped me because it makes me see what readers love and hate in books – and even though writing is subjective – these non-writer biased comments linger, so that when I’m writing my own stuff, I am somewhat aware of what will really tick-off the ‘reader-only’ types. You know, the ones who will hopefully be reading my book.
I have another avid reader friend (referred to on this blog as BFF/PR Pro) who doesn’t wear rose colored glasses when reading either. She’s in PR so she knows how to spin something, however, never-ever will she put a positive spin on a bad book. She’s blatantly honest. Often admitting, “This is the worst novel I have ever read, but I’m finishing it because I need to know how it ends.” This is uber helpful because even when a book disgusts her, she finishes it, so her final evaluation is complete. If the book didn’t redeem itself in the end, she’ll annihilate it in conversation.
As writers, we need these people in our lives – the people who aren’t comparing the plot and the pacing of their own book to those that they read. When they read a lousy story, they don’t see the blood, sweat, and tears that went into it. They don’t forgive the book for letting them down. They tell it like it is, be it good or bad, and give me a fresh slap of realism.
Do you have people like this in your lives?
