What's the most awesome compliment you've ever gotten on your writing?

the comments i treasure most have come from my fellow writers here in response to poems i've posted over the years and, most specifically, to thorn forest.

these are people whose talents and opinions i greatly admire and respect, and that makes their kindness all the more precious to me.

From a reader - "Chapter 29 brought me to tears again. I am in awe of you."

From a few years ago, but it still sticks with me:

"God, I love seeing how much you're grown as a writer. I hope you publish some real books some day!"

(This was when I was doing fanfiction online - oh, how the times change)

I was working the concession stand at a high school basketball game. Why? Because I was Sophomore class sponsor and that is part of the job. It is not my favorite job-- no pay, long hours, hot dog dealing, pop corn oil blisters and soda pop stains--oh, yeah, and the sophomores themselves, easily distracted young people more interested in who loves whom than mopping floors, counting change and getting dirty.

I was turning out the Frito Chili Pies: Basket, I pkg Fritos, ladle of chili, double squirt of cheese. (Gotta be careful, the cheese machine has a hair trigger.) Then this old farmer guy in front of the line asked me if I was shakey smith. No one at school knows me as anything but curmudgeonly Mrs. Smith, the Spanish teacher. I was a little slack jawed but nodded yes. He put out a hand--a real, tractor driving farmer hand- and said he wanted to shake the hand of the author who wrote his favorite book. I was too stunned to ask which novel. It was awkward but we shook hands. Mine was kind of chili and cheese coated. I think I wiped it off first. I didn't even get his name but it was a thrill I never will forget.--s6

I'm part of a write-in group (we write stuff together, generally not feedback etc), but I've stuck up a friendship with one of the guys there and we were talking about our projects and he asked to see one of mine.

I saw him the other day and he was all "you can actually write!"

He's a freelancer and half of his work is editing/writing from a brief, so he sees a lot of not-so-good stuff.

I was quite chuffed by that.

blacbird said:

"Not for us."

caw

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LOL. If you got it too, it just doesn't feel as special anymore.

Someone wrote, "This is so God damn good!" in the margins of one of my pieces.

My favorite compliment probably comes from my husband, who after introducing me to new people often tells them about my writing and that I'm "writing the next big thing."

I'm in the editing process now and my daughter is my "beta reader". I can't go into her qualifications here, but trust me, she's more than qualified. Her first response was, " I really like it". Which made me smile from ear to ear. But what really made me smile was the fact that a few days later out of the blue, she commented on she liked the way the story was going. So, it stuck with her, she wants to read more, she wants to turn the literal page. That gives me hope, that the rest of my WIP will be a "page turner".

My mom usually doesn't like fantasy. She does like mine.

I had a critique session with an agent at a writing conference who requested my manuscript, and made a point of telling me that I was only person she was meeting that day who was being offered that request. That buoyed me up for months on end.

But, because I can't help but pointing out the dark cloud hiding in the silver lining, I ended up rewriting for several weeks based on her suggestions and submitting, only to have a brief and vague letter returned to me passing on the manuscript.

My mother said, "You know, that's not a bad little story."

She finished it a week before she died.

My girlfriend, who has dyslexia and by her own admission hadn't read a novel in four years, finished my book in one straight twelve hour sitting.

Even if she secretly hated every moment of it, that was a big enough compliment in itself.

Well the best compliment came to me from a recent review on my latest book, as the reviewer discusses her family in the review, and to me, there is nothing more important in life than family--so to include them in the review, meant a lot to me. Here is the entire review off Amazon:

"I LOVED THIS BOOK! I connected to this book on so many levels. As a woman, I was delighted and pleasantly surprised at how accurately the author perceives and conveys what women want and need from the men in their lives. A man armed with the knowledge in this book has the power to make the lady in his life very happy. For the obvious reasons I will be gifting a copy of this book to my 21 yr old son but I also think my 18 yr old daughter will benefit from reading this book as well. I want my daughter to know how she should be treated by the men in her life. This book also made me take a look at myself. I love my husband very deeply and I respect him greatly. But I had to ask myself, do I convey those feelings to him, not only in my words, but in my actions as well? This book is a must read for men and women, both young and mature." --Jennifer Reeves, Verified Purchase

Wow!! I can only hope.

J.S.Fairey said:

My girlfriend, who has dyslexia and by her own admission hadn't read a novel in four years, finished my book in one straight twelve hour sitting.

Even if she secretly hated every moment of it, that was a big enough compliment in itself.

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Same.

I sent one book to a friend. Didn't really expect her to read it. She emailed me back a day later saying she devoured the whole thing overnight. Best compliment.

"I didn't want the story to end."

Every time someone passes me by and sees me writing, they stop to read carefully, and when they're done they smile and tell me 'Good job'.

There are so many amazing compliments to choose from in the reviews of my books. My favourite might be this from a review of BURN BABY BURN BABY:

"I’m putting this book right up there alongside Laurie Halse Anderson’s TWISTED, and John Green’s LOOKING FOR ALASKA."

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Also, last night, I got texts all night from my daughter while I was sleeping. She was reading my recently finished YA novel PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE. She had to work this morning, but she stayed up until 4am reading it. Every once in a while there'd be another text saying she was bawling, or she couldn't believe that the guy who wrote this masterpiece was actually her father, or I HATE YOU---PLEASE LET ME SLEEP.

There were 27 texts from 11pm to 3:30 and then a couple at 6am when she had to get up to get the kids ready and leave for work. SHE LOVES THE BOOK. SHE HATES ME! lol

That might just be the best right there! <3

Back when I was writing Tolkien fanfiction, a reader told me she read my story at work (bad reader!), and when I killed a character, she burst into tears. Her supervisor was walking by her cubicle and saw her. She stopped and asked what was wrong. The reader managed to say she'd just heard a friend died, and the supervisor sent her home for the rest of the day.

For impact on a reader, I find that one hard to beat.

My grandfather, who generally isn't the type to listen and understand how much writing means to me and doesn't approve of this "hobby" taking up so much of my life, read a short story of mine when it was published in a journal. He just took it, stayed alone in the room with it for like twenty minutes, and when he came out he said something along the lines of "Now this, this really has a future." and kept dropping comments on characterisation/description/voice/etc for the rest of the day. It was very strange, and very surprising, in a good way. I just hope the readers of my novels will agree.

You finished the first draft?

Most people only talk about starting a book and never even do that.

Someone on Goodreads said of my first book that it was equal to Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern, which he always thought was tops. And, which happens to be one of the inspirations for the book.

Another person said my writing style reminded them of Isaac Asimov--and that was before I had ever read any of Asimov's works.

Miss Snark told me I had her laughing so hard she was in tears.

I wrote a short, short story as a humorous Amazon review. Someone commented on the review and said,"That was great. If you're not a writer, you should be. If you wrote a book, I would read it." That made me feel good, but the real best comment came on the same review a couple of years later. The review is under a product that could be used for disabled people. A lady left this comment, "On this site looking for a tub for my incredible, young-adult son who is seriously ill. Let's just say it is not a good time in my life. Your 'review' made me laugh out loud...something I haven't done in a loooong while. Thanks! I needed that!."

Never felt better about anything I've ever written.