Posted:
Dear Readers,
First and foremost, I wish to offer you all a sincere thank you. Art often does not become so until it is validated by observers as being so. The fact that so many of you take the time out to not only read, but also to comment on everything I write means a lot. When so many of you trusted the sudden, unexpected darker shift my writing took with Intoxicated and continued with it despite doubts as to a) whether I'd be able to write something so drastically different from my usual style b) the morality of the characters who in the very first chapter were revealed to be drastically immoral, I could've cried I was so happy for your belief in my ability.
Now that I'm balancing four FFs- two light-hearted and the other two so twisted I sometimes have to take breaks mid-way through writing a chapter, there are many of you who follow them all and also leave thought-provoking comments. I'm extremely happy when I read these and especially so when I hear that Tainted has encouraged so many of you to start exploring the world of literature (a pursuit you won't ever come to regret, I promise you).
You readers make my time spent writing worth it, you have encouraged me, often inspired me and Shoes12, you have several times guessed at what I thought was a really good plot twist and forced me to do an abrupt about-turn and take the story in a completely different direction. 😆 Are you in my head?
I sincerely appreciate your efforts and I hope to maintain the mutual relationship a writer forms with their readers; one where I promise to try and continue to keep you interested in my writing enough that you wish to keep reading.
And now for PartTwo. This is a request:
Beloved readers- I love praise. I really do. It's motivational, it gives me a warm, happy feeling. And it encourages me. When I read a comment telling me that somebody loves what I wrote, or detailing exactly what it is they enjoyed- when someone analyses parts of an update and picks up on the fine nuances I intentionally put in there: it's both extremely satisfying and gratifying.
But I do not want this praise to be false-praise. I've only recently come to realise that the meaning of this isn't so clear to everybody:
It basically just means "Don't tell me you liked it if you didn't. And if you didn't like it, then by ALL MEANS PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE TELL ME WHAT I COULD HAVE DONE DIFFERENTLY."
Simple right?
There appears to be a fear culture amongst readers that if they say something critical about the writer's work, then not only the writer but all their readers will jump down their throat and attack them. I myself experienced this recently when I offered some advice to a fellow writer. And it's true, being told to go to hell or that you're a basher or that someone you don't even know hates you is a little bitter to swallow. Seeing the writer thanking the same people saying these horrible, unnecessary things even more so.
But I really think a lot of it is down to how the writer reacts themselves. I want you to feel free to write anything and everything you thought about my writing, be this positive or critical. Even if you left me a page of mistakes to correct, you could expect a reply from me thanking you for this. You readers help me to grow. You help me to improve. You help me to strive for perfection. You push me forward.
You inspire me.
If I didn't want you to be honest with me, I wouldn't have shared my writing with you. I hope to inspire people to write and I believe if they see me striving to hone and perfect my craft, then they too would strive for excellence when they write.
Flaming is unnecessary, I would never write on somebody's story "HATE DIS U SUK STP RYTING LOLOL!" but some honest critique I have received before which I appreciated was the following- the reader PMed me this but honestly, I do not mind at ALL if they would have commented on the story itself as PMs take me forever to check. This way, my readers could have made sure that I took the advice and improved. So yeah, they said this (about Intoxicated):
Hi Rafa, please don't take this the wrong way and it's okay if you ignore this completely, but I really loved this story and wanted to let you know. I love how your characters do such shocking things which, I have to say, really shock me, but I still somehow find myself liking them so much even though I know I should hate them. Thank you for writing such a gripping story. What I wanted to say was sometimes, you repeat a few phrases and words several times so I get the feeling like deja vu a little. Please don't mind me, just saying what I thought. I did love the story and I'm definitely going to read through your Index now!
I offered my heartfelt thanks to the PMer for pointing out my weakness- something I hadn't even realised I did, and from that point onwards, I have made a conscious effort to vary my vocabulary and ensure I don't reuse a phrase too often if it flags up in my mind as sounding a little too familiar...
This reader helped me by telling me the truth. I am now a better writer because of them. I am sincerely grateful to them for helping me to improve as a writer.
I would hate to remain stuck where I am. Before I posted Intoxicated, I had a huge panic to my friends on this forum- all of whom had read things such as You've Got Mail or Soulmates... Had they told me that I was fine continuing as I already was and that they would stop reading my work if I changed my style, then I would never have published Intoxicated. Nor, consequently, would I have begun writing Tainted or The Svengali. Even Cafe du Soleil has hints of more mature humour and situations so even that...
What I basically mean is, I'm so grateful to Aaliyah, Haffy, Liya, Mari, Nami, Ouma, Ridz and Rissy for helping me to bloom as a writer. I can't quite express how much it means to me that you guys were there at the beginning, pushing me to be better and do more and that you stayed with me through it all. Are still there as I continue. And Liya, though I will never understand why you love Arnav in Intoxicated so much when there is AMAN to be had, I love you for all the spam-love you left me and all the pressure you piled on to update it almost daily till it was done.
So my dear readers, thank you for what you have made me today and infinite advance thank yous for what you will make me in the future. I look forward to taking this journey with you.
Sincerely,
Rafa
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