The Scariest Thing

It's October, that time of the year when we relish in scaring and in being scared. The time of year when we pay good money for people to jump out of the shadows and frighten us. The time of year when we dust off all of those scary movies and cuddle in the darkness on the couch gripping onto our significant other. The time of year when we dress up in scary, or extremely not scary, costumes.

With all of this fear in the air I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about one of the scariest things for a writer....reviews! For the average person it may not seem like reviews would be that scary, but for a writer they are nerve wracking. It's even uncomfortable for me to talk with someone who mentions that they've read my book.

"Hey Ashley, I just finished your book." Says a longtime friend.
"Oh." I reply as my throat gets dry and I start looking for an exit. Why does this person want to talk to me about my book? Are they trying to torture me? Do they just want to laugh in my face, or do they want to point out everything that's wrong with my beloved creation?

Even if that person says that they really liked my book, I still feel extremely uncomfortable and long for the conversation to either end abruptly or move onto a completely different topic.

And I'm not alone. A friend of mine was so nervous about reading a review that he'd gotten from Kirkus that he made his wife read the review first so that she could tell him whether or not it was good.

So you can imagine my terror when I noticed that I had a few new reviews on Goodreads. Instinctively I closed my Web browser and justified my action by telling myself that I didn't care about reviews anyways. I tried to tell this lie to myself for a few minutes while I argued in my head. Finally I told myself that I was being a sissy and logged back in to Goodreads. And then I slowly made my mouse hover over the word "Reviews." And finally I clicked.

And there they were, three new reviews. I forced myself to read them and even though they were really good reviews, I still felt a little panicked after I'd finished...probably just the rush of adrenaline from wading through the dark halls of Goodreads waiting for a horrible Review to jump out at me. It was the scariest experience I've had this October.

And what were those scary Reviews that haunted me?

Terrell Sanzone: "I received my copy of this book through the Goodreads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review. If you have not yet read nor put this book on your 'To Read' list DO IT NOW! This is a wonderfully fluid read, lots of plot, characters and main character sarcasm to get you through Summer heat, Fall depression and anything else you've got bogging you down!"

Thelma Melendez: "Doctor Brian is an unwitting hero that I couldn't help but root for. His plunge into the world of secret societies is action-packed and dramatic. I was caught in the whirlwind of the madness surrounding him and was glued to the page. Would highly recommend!  *I received a copy of this book via Goodreads Giveaways"

Katrease: "So I got this book for my birthday and I honestly hadn't heard much about it, but now I can say that it was a great book, amazingly written, and very creative. :) I totally recommend it to anyone who is looking for something to read. It was awesome!"

Terrifying...Absolutely Terrifying! Wouldn't you agree?

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Have you ever been really excited to read a book because there's all this hype around it and have ended up disappointed? That's kind of what happened to me when I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower. It just wasn't what I expected it to be. And it leaves me to wonder if I would have liked it better if I had just happened across it in the library one day and had no idea what it was about. But I guess I'll never know.

This book dealt a lot with sex, drugs, drinking, and emotional trauma. And maybe I've been out of high school for too long but this book didn't resemble my high school experience at all. And it definitely made me nervous for when my kids go to high school.

I did appreciate the book's unique main character, Charlie, and his simplistic but insightful view of relationships. I also liked the message that was put across in the last chapter, however I felt like the delivery of the message was badly done. It was just thrown out there in a big glob and didn't seem to fit with the rest of Charlie's narrative. It really seemed to be coming more from the author and less from his character. But sometimes as an author, it's hard to separate the two.

Overall, I did not like the book and wouldn't recommend it. The best parts of the book can be summed up in simple phrases:

• "Go out and actually participate in life instead of just observing." 
• "You are in charge of your own life."
• "Only accept what you truly deserve and want."
• "Accept your past and move forward."

And while these motifs are good and thought-provoking, you can find these in many books that are more enjoyable to read.

Time for the Red Ink

So I've let my novel sit for about a month. It seems silly that I didn't just move on to the next part but I needed a break and I needed some distance from my book. But today that break is over. Now it's time to really get into the best and worst part of writing...editing.

I love editing, which is a good thing since it's a part of my occupation, but there are some downsides to it. First, is the tremendous amount of time it takes. At this point I've already spent a ton of time constructing and writing my story and I just want to be done with it. It would be lovely to just finish writing something and know that it was perfect and didn't need any editing. But that's just not how it all works.

The second downside is the realization that what you've written isn't nearly as good as you thought it was. You read along and suddenly notice all of the typos or you realize that what you wrote doesn't make any sense whatsoever (this must have been the part I wrote while simultaneously trying to play princess with my little girl). And it just isn't fun to realize that your precious manuscript isn't as great as you thought it was the day that you finished it.

The third downside, having to go and correct all of the edits that you make. This also takes a lot of time and can screw up some of the formatting which you then have to fix.

Fourth downside: all of that red ink.

But along with all of the downsides comes a tremendous, and ultimately worth-all-of-the-hassle, upside: your story gets better. And in the end every writer wants their novel to be the best that it possibly can be.

And after almost all (it's hard to get all of them) of the typos are gone and most of the story makes sense and you were able to fix that one really weird part and make it just perfect, it's a great feeling. And it makes you strong enough to face the next obstacle...actually showing your manuscript to others (and getting more edits).