The best compliment you've ever received

kaitie · Feb 7, 2010

I was just thinking this would be a fun way to show some encouragement. I got what I consider to be a pretty darn good compliment yesterday, and just wondered what are your favorite compliments you've received?

Anyway, this might sound strange, but I did find it a bit encouraging. Yesterday I met up with a friend of mine. This friend has known me for over a year, and throughout this time has always known that I write and has often helped me sort out fun little details on my plots. Well, a couple of weeks ago I gave him my manuscript for the one that's currently on submission and he's been reading it.

When I saw him yesterday, he was with a friend of his I'd never met. He introduced us and told her, "This is my friend, Kaitie. She's a writer."

I think it's the first time anyone has ever introduced me as a writer, and I know it's the first time he ever had. It was just a kind of cool moment. Maybe not a compliment in the traditional sense, but it was pretty nice.

What about you?

Kweei · Feb 7, 2010

Mine was when an English teacher compared me to Edgar Allan Poe. That was a nice feeling.

Matera the Mad · Feb 7, 2010

"I don't want to stop."
Spoken by a friend who was having a quick read.

"You are an artist with your writing..."
Un-named person in private correspondence.

"...much better..."
#1 Beta

*pokes self head w/pin*

tiny · Feb 7, 2010

A friend handed my manuscript back to me and said "You're creepy."

scarletpeaches · Feb 7, 2010

Oh, I LOVE that one, kaitie! I remember going to meet a friend in a bar once, and she introduced me as, "This is [my real name]. She's a writer."

Made me blush, I tells thee!

But the bestest ever was when I was really down on myself a few months back, sloped off to bed PMSing, spotty, tired, depressed...and when I got up the next day, tt42 sent me a word document entitled "445 Reasons".

Opened it up, the first page said...

"445 Reasons Why You Are
Never
Ever
Ever
Allowed to Doubt
Your Ability to Write.

EVER."

She's stayed up for hours going through everything I'd ever written, copy/pasting her favourite bits.

Kilawher · Feb 7, 2010

My old creative writing professor, published herself many times over, said that she usually tried to discourage her students from trying to make it in the writing business, but that if anyone could make it, I could. It meant a lot

kal-el · Feb 7, 2010

An attractive woman masturbated after reading chapter 2 of my manuscript, and she told me the next day in work!

She said the scene was so well written, it made her go wet and she couldn't help herself! I still gasp when I think about it.

Cyia · Feb 7, 2010

"I got so caught up I missed my bus stop by two stops." - person who read MS

"I haven't been this excited about a vampire series since Anne Rice." - total stranger who's read some snips; left in comments on blog.

thethinker42 · Feb 7, 2010

I think the best compliment I've ever received came from - SHOCKING, I KNOW - scarletpeaches. Upon reading one of my books, she stated, quote: "If this isn't published, I will eat my own head."

dgrintalis · Feb 7, 2010

From an agent:

I think you are a talented writer, I was really compelled to read on, and on, and felt that the tension you built was quite good. I really think your writing is superb.

She went on to tell me her favorite parts of the MS. The email was a double-edged sword, though, since it was a rejection. She thought the MS would benefit from multiple points of view instead of just the main character's POV. Despite the rejection, the thought that a big-name agent thought my writing was superb (and she told me her door was always open) was a huge thrill.

ChaosTitan · Feb 7, 2010

The first was nine years ago. I was taking a screenwriting class and the professor was a produced screenwriter himself. At the end of the semester, he said if I kept at it, he believed I would eventually sell a screenplay. That one compliment kept me writing for a long, long time.

Lately, the best compliments I get the ones that tell me my book kept someone up way past their bedtime.

C.bronco · Feb 7, 2010

I can't post it here, because I'm too modest, LOL!

Cranky · Feb 7, 2010

The best one? That's hard to say, because I value them all (and I know we all do). But one that really stands out was from someone whose work I really like, and they told me that even months later, they could remember exact lines from a story I'd written.

I've always wanted to write something that stuck with someone like that, so I was thrilled to my toes, and it was a tremendous confidence booster.

Aggy B. · Feb 7, 2010

I had someone tell me my MCs were double-hard bastards. Which made me laugh for weeks. (Still makes me chuckle.)

I've also gotten several along the lines of "This was so interesting I forgot to look for mistakes."

san_remo_ave · Feb 7, 2010

Best compliment that I've received? They didn't want the story to end.

~*Kate*~ · Feb 7, 2010

My best friend's husband stayed up until 5 to finish my MS, and woke her up at 3 when he realized he was reading a copy that was missing some chapters. He's the antithesis of a YA fan, so I was over the top flattered.

Libbie · Feb 7, 2010

"I read that short story you gave me to critique, and while it was the worst piece of forensic crime fiction I've ever read, it was one of the best literary stories I've ever read."

It wasn't forensic crime fiction; the dude was joking. But he's a good writer himself, so it's always nice to hear a "that was one of the best" from somebody like that.

Aside from that one, snagging an agent from a major agency was a pretty nice compliment.

mscelina · Feb 7, 2010

The best compliment happened only a few weeks ago and was made by someone completely unknown to me. I'm still so dumbfounded I don't exactly know what to do about it. The blogger at An American Editor did a compare and contrast blog between LE Modesitt's recent book Arms-Commander and my work.

Unlike my struggle with Arms-Commander, I found that I didn’t want to stop reading Summers’ books. Whereas I usually spend a few hours each day with each of the books I am currently reading, I became so engrossed with Summers’ characters that I simply read The Asphodel Cycle from volume 1 page 1 until the last page of volume 4.

I enjoy a lot of books but there aren’t many that I read that I can say brought tears to my eyes, caused me to laugh, or caused me to feel choked with emotion. But Summers’ characterizations and dialogue in The Asphodel Cycle did bring all those emotions and more to me, enhancing the pleasure of these books.

If I knew who this fellow was, I'd send him a fruit basket. As it is, I just refer to that blog entry every time I throw something at the wall and swear to give up all this writing horseshit. It keeps me on track, which is always a good thing, I'm thinking.

Caitlin Black · Feb 7, 2010

A person I'm attracted to read my first MS and finished it in a day and a half. She said, "My favourite part was X - how did you come up with that?" - X was my favourite part too.

Since then she's helped me find a writing course for free that is University Accredited. She really believes in my work. Before she had read my first MS, she knew I had completed only half a degree in physics, and she thought for sure that this is what I was supposed to be doing. After reading the MS, she's always talking to me about publishing and now thinks that writing is what I should be doing.

So that person is my biggest compliment, incarnate.

At a wedding the other week, I was with old work mates. After a few of them found out that I'd been writing, I kept getting introduced as a writer, and other ex-workmates kept coming up asking me about it. It was a double-edged sword. I kept having to explain that I wasn't published yet, but it was good that they understood I really cared about this, and they treated me like my job was writing, as opposed to being unemployed on disability (they didn't know about the disability part, and a few of them asked me, "So why haven't you found another job yet?" but the writing took the edge off that).

The compliment of the evening was no fewer than 4 of my ex-workmates asking to be turned into characters in my next book.

WildScribe · Feb 7, 2010

I used to write a blog for a sexual minority within a sexual minority - a very specific group of people. I used to get emails and comments that said things like "I never knew there were other people out there who felt this way" or "I've been told that I'm odd or that I'm wrong. Thank you so much for giving me something to shut them up." And once even "This post saved my marriage. Thank you."

I wanted to quit a few times, but those posts made me stay.

slcboston · Feb 7, 2010

"I'm surprised you're not dead yet."

oh, wait, this was *writing* compliments.

Never mind.

Anaquana · Feb 7, 2010

The best compliment I've received was when one of my favorite authors read a very rough draft of my first page and told me that she was sure I'd be seeing publication within the next few years.

Snowstorm · Feb 7, 2010

In college during a creative writing class, one student, a gal who was the unofficial leader in this workshop class (and earned top female graduate at the university AND was approached by National Geographic to work for them), wrote on her critique of my story that would become my first novel (Clear and Convincing Evidence): "I was so engrossed in the story I forgot to critique it."

Nateskate · Feb 7, 2010

I won't go with the best compliment, but the most timely

At one point of total discouragement a magazine editor said, "Your story is better than Eldest". Another Beta said, "It's better than Eragon." They didn't know of each other, but I took it for a sign and it kept me pressing on.

kurzon · Feb 7, 2010

"Do you have another I can read?"

The best compliment you've ever received

With great power comes

Expert Procrastinator

Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

riding the sun

Chronic Semicolon Overuser

Rewriting My Destiny

Abnormal Romance Author

'Tis true, she is a monstergirl

Around

I have plans...

Not as sweet as you think

Back at it

brings the random.

Worst song played on ugliest guitar

Teh doommobile, drivin' rite by you

Wild one

Slave to the Wordcount

Pasture-ized

needed a good laugh today

Baby plot bunneh sniffs out a clue