What's the best compliment or nicest thing someone has said about your writing?

Well, it didn't suck as bad as I thought it would.... LOL. Nah just kidding, I don't let people read my stuff.

 

This was my most recent from someone who reached out to me. He’d asked me to let him know when I posted my next short story. He wanted to have a look and potentially submit it to be featured. He was actually about to go to bed when I sent him the link and was going to look at it the next day. So his reaction was spontaneous, which was what I loved most.

 

I recently had a writer/editor, who I respect very much say that I "have a really nice and natural conversational writing style that pulls the reader along effortlessly on the journey".

I took it as a compliment, but I also realize it could mean that I write in such a simple style that a second grader will enjoy it.

 

Which is bad because ....?

 

I was told my start to a Sci-fi/Comedy comes off as original.

 

I can say a lot with few words.
But have become verbose recently. Maybe I'm losing my schtick.

 

That I must be "well travelled".

I'm in the UK, both my fictions are set in New York City, New York State, New Jersey, and Naples (Italy)

I only left the UK twice before writing my books, once to Majorca when I was a kid, and once to the middle of France (via ferry) when I was 21. Last year, I went to Crete.
So I take it as a huge compliment that one reader thinks I'm well travelled and two others love the way I wrote about the time my characters were in Italy.

 

I haven't put out anything in written form but I've done open mic and live poetry performances. The post performance request for my written work and unexpected Q&A I end up in are the best direct compliments I've had... Being moved up the bill to last on stage at a venue where i wasn't a regular or at all known by the guy running the night (the venue owner remembered me from a previous event and told him how to organise his set list) was the best unspoken compliment I could have ever had.

 

I was fortunate to get a short story published in a horror quarterly. One of the reviewers most definitely made my day when they compared my storytelling style to that of Ray Bradbury!!! Gave me the incentive to write something longer, which I'm working on now.

 

I hired an award-winning author and university professor to edit my book, as I once took an Advanced Novel online course with him. From the time I took the course, to the time I hired him, I'd made some significant changes in the final portion of the book, where he first told me was my weakest area. In the end, he described my manuscript as "poignant" and "compelling," but the one remark that made me feel warm and fuzzy inside was that he compared parts of my writing with Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams Stories in nature. Naturally, I had to order me a copy and read some of those.

 

The one piece of work I've had published. It was published in my college's end-of-year collaborative book that featured art and writing from dozens of different students. The editor, an English professor I had in my freshman year, told me that my story was the creepiest thing she'd ever read and that it actually kept her awake the previous night.

I'll definitely take that as a compliment.

 

I've been to Italy twice, when my son was stationed there. So beautiful! It was like crawling into a story book, kind of beautiful.

 

I was told from one of my works on a premise for a class project was inventive and winning.... Though he did mention it was a bit clumsy, I really just pulled out an original concept out of my ass, but he really thought I delivered on a twist and he wanted more. Most of my work I have gotten fairly decent reviews, told I was creative, uplifting, strange and weird (in a good way), but all I need is refinement. I have spoken with publishers before, but never really showed them my work. My hope of doing that now will change.

 

A colleague at work read one of my stories and said 'You've your first follower'

 

To the OP, for some this would be an insult, but for my first book, i regularly got the . . "You wrote that? Really?" surprise from friends and family. I like that, in the sense i like to surprise people, (this is in the sense it isn't bad)

Rgds

 

I know this sounds weird, but compliments about my writing don't make me feel warm and fuzzy inside.* They make me feel uncomfortable, actually. But something that made me feel jump up and down happy was when one of my childhood heroes contacted me through a mutual friend to let me know they loved something I wrote, then asked me to work on one of their projects. That was huge.

ETA: * So much so that the "sandwich" method of critique doesn't work for me, because I think the person is just making up positive comments because the form requires it.

 

"You write with a vengence, as if the world were about to end" [REDACTED]

"Those who think themselves immortal will not long test us." - The Eternum

 

Most of my work is poetry, but these are some of the top comments I have had to date.
"It sings to me."
"I'm kinda impressed that I can't come up with a meaningful criticism."
"I really loved this."
"You put wonder into simple day-of-the-life moments."

 

One of my short stories that I posted on social media for the masses seems to have made it to an ex I consider an "enemy." We've hated each other since sophomore year of high school, over something that I'm not really going to get into, but I'm assuming you can get the gist.

I'd almost forgotten about her, but she sent me a message yesterday that said, "While I may not like you as a person, I respect you as a writer."

Something about that makes me hate the girl a lot less.

 

I can tell you what, probably. Consider the strength of character this person has, even when you're her 'enemy' as much as she is to you, she still has the guts to tell you that you're good at something. This takes a whole lot of nerve. Yeah, I'd respect her, too.

 

Yeah, I can definitely tell she's changed a lot since we last spoke. I may try to reach out to her some time soon. Not romantically, that ship has sailed, but just to see how she's doing and if the friendship is actually salvageable.

 

OMG, same here haha.

This is going to sound sad but sometimes I read old complimentary rejection letters that my former agent forwarded to me, because I feel like editors don't have the time to make up fake compliments. Plus they know what they're talking about, in theory. On that note, the compliment that tickled me the most was: "But I truly admire [Dragon Turtle]'s ear for smart, sharp, and funny writing (especially dialogue)."

In general I love it when people tell me I made them laugh. I had this one book that I wrote, made my husband read, and then several years later completely rewrote... but I remembered the exact two lines that made him laugh out loud, and you can bet your ass I kept those.

 

From another writing forum:
"I wish I'd thought of that."

 

"How do you come up with (insert here)??!!"

 

That would be a fun experience.
It does seem to expose what the person thinks of you, though they might not even be aware they held that view.

One observation: They're impressed with your work but seem surprised you had the talent.
You can then take that as a compliment or an insult.
I've found it best to just ask for clarification. But this doesn't always mean they'll be able to, and some folks just get upset when you "pry". Some folks aren't fans of exposure. The surface dwellers.

Family and friends can have such diverse responses upon awareness you have a talent, which can differ when they think about stranger's talents.

My Dawta will be excited about something she read in an article. I'll be excited because it's confirmation of the same or very similar conclusions I've reached on my own journey. My Dawta is nowhere near as impressed with my insights\understanding.