Jessica Russell's Blog - Posts Tagged "plot-hole"
Smile, Ignore, Repeat
No disrespect intended to anyone, but the minute you publish a book, everyone you know is suddenly an expert. I even had one person tell me I needed a different man on my book's cover and proceeded to show me a picture of a "male model" who was downright frightening! I think she had Fabio in mind, but somehow it escaped her that Fabio wasn't in the book (so why should he be on the cover?)
People always mean well with this kind of unsolicited advice, but it is rarely helpful. Type-o's, plot holes, confusing dialogue, absolutely! Listen and listen well.
But people who are merely offering to rewrite your book for you (or redesign the cover) should be, well, politely ignored. Don't hurt anyone's feelings or infer that their opinions don't matter, because of course they do. But don't get carried away and start second guessing everything because of so-and-so's opinion.
Give a thousand people a book to read and you'll get a thousand people telling you what needs to be changed. However, unless you want to write a thousand books, or customize each one for the reader, you have to let it stand or fall on it's own.
Be nice, be polite, nod and smile, but never make changes to your novel based on another person's opinion!
People always mean well with this kind of unsolicited advice, but it is rarely helpful. Type-o's, plot holes, confusing dialogue, absolutely! Listen and listen well.
But people who are merely offering to rewrite your book for you (or redesign the cover) should be, well, politely ignored. Don't hurt anyone's feelings or infer that their opinions don't matter, because of course they do. But don't get carried away and start second guessing everything because of so-and-so's opinion.
Give a thousand people a book to read and you'll get a thousand people telling you what needs to be changed. However, unless you want to write a thousand books, or customize each one for the reader, you have to let it stand or fall on it's own.
Be nice, be polite, nod and smile, but never make changes to your novel based on another person's opinion!
