Whether it's an from a reviewer, reader, beta, editor or even family/friends - is there a comment you've gotten that makes you feel all warm and fuzzy inside? If so, share it here!
This might be weird, but one that meant something to me was my brother, who's not into horror at all, saying that he could understand why something I wrote was supposed to be scary even though it didn't get him. He's immune to this shit but at least it was well done enough that he saw why it was supposed to work
Well, all 10 of my 2nd draft readers said they all thought my MC was the most original character they'd seen in a long time and most said the main premise was intriguing. That's all I got.
Someone cried from a story that was supposed to be sad. For me, that's the highest praise, when my work does what I intended it to do.
My copy editor said, "It was a real page-turner. Sometimes I'd forget I was supposed to be editing and find myself just reading. When I finished the edits I went back and read it again, just for fun." Since I had gotten a lot of really negative feedback from people up to that point, mostly saying it wasn't publishable, having an industry professional say she liked it was very validating.
Okay, I'll share my own as well! From Becky Condit, a romance reviewer from usatoday.com: Under the Knife by Laurin Kelly is a debut novel unlike any other romance book I’ve ever read, and I say that in the best way possible. First of all, you won’t believe she isn’t a seasoned author without an extensive backlist...If you are a foodie or a cook or even a chef, this is the romance for you. If you love seeing two people fall in love under difficult circumstances, this is the romance for you. If you enjoy a book with a great HEA, this is the romance for you. I can’t express how much I enjoyed this delightful book. http://happyeverafter.usatoday.com/2016/07/22/becky-condit-gay-romance-under-the-knife-laurin-kelly/
Best compliment I ever got was from my wife a week or two after we started dating. I let her read something and she said, "Wow, you're a real writer. I thought that was just a pick up line!"
BTW telling somebody "I'm a writer" is a great pickup line. You don't even have to expand on it much. You throw that out there and they'll do most of the talking. Just play it cool and chime in in all the right places. Watch the eyes. If they widen, you're money!
I'm a Slytherin-Ravenclaw who collects compliments about my creative ideas When I finished my Doctor Who fanfiction and asked another fan to look at my work, she said that my serial killer was her favorite character (even more so than any of my heroes). My first ever accidental story (1700 word first draft after half an hour of inspiration and 2 hours of writing) was also the first time I've ever written something realistic without any SciFi/Fantasy (despite technically being a prequel to my Urban Fantasy WIP), and Dad told me that he thought it was the best writing I'd done in my life (he loves realism a lot more than I do). Another website I go to was talking about "can men and women be friends," so I put up an exchange I came up for a (far) future book in my UrFan series about how one of my men and one of my women (both straight) love each other platonically, how much he wants her to find another man to be involved with romantically, and how comfortable he is with the fact that she's a world-class serial killer and he isn't. I got a tears-in-eyes emoji and an "Awww," and when I shared my prequel short story about the serial killer herself, my reader asked if I'd interviewed people about going on dates and about committing murder or if I just understood people that well. She told me that she was expecting my killer to do something stereotypically complicated that nobody would be able to pull off except in cheesy movies, but was pleasantly surprised by how hard my killer worked to keep the murder low-key enough to get away with.
A critique partner said 'You should be a fucking editor!' Okay, he disregarded that I still haven't stamped out SPAG errors... And a new-agey female and esoteric freak (I'm writing contemp mil fantasy so she is opposite on the spectrum of my target demographic) said this about my first two chapters: 'The story sucks me in totally even if I have no idea at all of anything military i.e. what ranks are suppposed to mean. The characters are lifelike and likeable, even the not-nice.'
"You understand suspension of disbelief. Can't say that for a lot of people around here." I got this comment in a forum where I focused on roleplaying. "God I love your brain!" On some scenes I scribbled down.
Someone said that there was a nice something that they couldn't quite name about my writing, and this is what people also tell me about my art. My MC is also an artist, so that compliment felt quite special.
The one's that made me happiest to receive were: "...a war crime of a downer ending." and "...for people who like crying while they masturbate." It's still not clear to me if they were intended positively but I choose to believe that is the case. A more concretely complimentary comment that I feel pretty good about is "strong, compelling, believable character voice" doubly so because I've heard the same thing several times. In books that are all about their main character, yeah I'm pretty cuffed with that.
I don't have much to say, except that some friends of mine were reading a sort of "how-to" piece in one of my books. They said that it was just like I was standing there, talking to them in my own authentic, unmistakeable voice. I took that as a compliment.
Some beta readers for a short story told me that they were genuinely scared of the main character. Mission accomplished.
That's always the worst, isn't it? It's like when I went to an event where a magician was performing for some kids, and they all loved it but – even as a complete amateur myself with no professional training whatsoever – I could still notice a lot of mistakes that I would've been mortified to have made myself. That is impressive
I took that as a compliment, really I mean, if I can see the shortcomings in other's work, my internal 'editor' can (mostly) see them in my own. Or that's the theory, anyway.. Disregarding SPAGs, of course If you had just left out the ... 'wake up' I'd have been awed. Still.. who says you need to wake up?
