Stress stress

[sharpest_rose]

Okay I know that like rule one of Author Club is "don't bitch about negative reviews" (actually that's probably rule 2, I think rule 1 might be "don't bitch about rejection letters") but ugh, okay, it's been more than a week since I read this one review at goodreads and I'm still thinking about it every day and getting stressed about it. Full text

Comments

PART ONE BECAUSE LJ SUCKS

[antistar_e]

I SAW THAT. AND I WANTED TO HULK OUT.

Okay, Mary, checklist.

• She sounds like she comes from a background of seeking out stories about the ladies, the indigenous, the trans, and the queer. Is the Devil's Mixtape a fair and diverse representation of these denominations? ABSOLUTELY. DO NOT DOUBT THIS. The problem lies with her: she came into the Devil's Mixtape with these preconceived notions about what she's looking for in a novel featuring these minorities, and god forbid you fail to live up to every checkpoint she has in her head.

Maybe she's read longer series about Aboriginals, about trans, about the queer community that went into exhaustive detail. That's fine. The Devil's Mixtape is not those books. The Devil's Mixtape has no business being like those books, because it's YOURS. You told it, and personally, I think you told it brilliantly. There was nothing tokenistic about Jacqui, about Sally Oblivion, about any of the others, because it's THEIR story, and they told it with their own voices. The fact that Jacqui is trans and Sally is mixed is secondary to the journeys they make within The Devil's Mixtape; important, absolutely, but not all they are. They'd be tokenistic if their minority status was the ONLY thing worth note about their inclusion in the plot.

That's not the case.

So if she has some idealized conception of what a minority character should be, then MORE POWER to you and your characters for not being that. They're more 3D and more human than that.

(Also, coming from a background that knows NOTHING about Aboriginal history or culture, and I can't be the only one out of your readership in a similar boat, I felt like I learned something. I, for one, appreciated that inclusion; not as some exotic portrayal, but as a natural part of the story. If you'd left it out, I would have felt like I was missing a vital piece of the Australian portrait. The Australian portrait was part of what made The Devil's Mixtape SUCH a layered read.)

• the fanfiction bit. This also sounds like something that's HER problem, not yours. She even openly admits she has no experience with the fanfiction community outside of the Very Bad, and come on, it's hard to exist in a sphere of amateur writing without encountering the VERY BAD before the VERY BAD becomes good. It's not fair of her to judge the whole of fanfiction on that one standard or one encounter and then apply that standard to you. Mary, you have written fanfiction. You still write fanfiction. THIS DOESN'T MAKE YOU ANY LESS LEGITIMATE AS A WRITER.

And you know what? I've read your fanfiction and it is fucking brilliant. The Fragile is one of the first things that goes on any TSN rec list I make. She's never experienced that or your other fanfictions, and man, I feel sorry for her. She's missing out.

You are allowed to write your story however you want to write your story, in whatever style. Period.

(Also, what even does she mean, "the writing style is one I associate with fanfiction"? I can't even address this specifically, because what about The Devil's Mixtape even resembles fanfiction? You know what's like fanfiction? Fanfiction.)

• as for the unique voices bit, I'm not even going to. Just. Were we reading the same book?

Okay, personally, sometimes after getting up and walking away from the story (which was HARD, because I DEVOURED IT. Literally nothing else took precedence,) I would come back and forget whose section I was on. Instead of scrolling back to the header to find out who, I'd keep reading. And you know what? I could ALWAYS tell who the speaker was. Sally's coarse, colloquial language was different from Amy, who read more jaded and ancient even before the demon reveal; the letter format was ALWAYS Ella; and Charlotte with her crisp, journalistic style was different from all of the above.

I hate to break it to you, but that's unique voice. I can't even wrap my head around how CRYSTAL CLEAR and well-developed each of those characters had to be to you for you to write their voices SO CLEARLY in a way that I could recognize them without needing to check their name.

Re: PART ONE BECAUSE LJ SUCKS

[sharpest_rose]

Thank you so much for this comment. To hear such reasoned and well thought out support of the things I was so worried and upset about, from someone who is a stunning writer themselves, means more than I will ever be able to properly say. Your comments took away so much of the hurt that was gnawing away at me. I wish I could reply at the same length and level of care that your offered to me, but I don't know how. Thank you, thank you.

Re: PART ONE BECAUSE LJ SUCKS

[antistar_e]

It's honestly the least I could do, promise.

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