The Best Compliment

I always appreciate reviews of my work when they mention specific aspects of my writing. Like yours, my favorite compliment was a an e-mail from a reader who said one of my stories moved her to tears.

The last sentence of this fan mail I got from a 15-year-old stranger:

"Your stories never get old and I would just like to tell you that you are my favorite author of all time and your books are also my favorite books on earth, and I in my 15 years of living have read many books but nothing as amazing and wonderful as Pantomime and Shadowplay. Thank you."

*sobs forever*

lauralam said:

The last sentence of this fan mail I got from a 15-year-old stranger:

"Your stories never get old and I would just like to tell you that you are my favorite author of all time and your books are also my favorite books on earth, and I in my 15 years of living have read many books but nothing as amazing and wonderful as Pantomime and Shadowplay. Thank you."

*sobs forever*

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That's awesome! For me, it's when someone says they teared up, or laughed.

Honestly? Last week I let sir Smash read draft 1.5 of my WIP. At one point (where the stuff really hits the fan) he set it down, glared at me, and hissed "I hate you so much right now" then went right back to reading.

If I can get that response out of everyone, I'll die happy.

Last week, I'd gone to a local writing group where we read small excerpts aloud then participate in live critiquing. I'd meant to ask questions about the tension and pacing of a particular scene from my Psychological Thriller, so as I read aloud, I paid attention to the reactions of the other folks in the room.

A few were were physically clutching the edge of the table, and others had tensed shoulders and clenched hands. As that scene ended, folks leaned back in their chairs, and visibly exhaled in release.

I didn't have to ask - they told me with both their actions and later, with their words, that the tension was strong. My favorite comment was a simple one word response to that section.

Intense.

"You bastard! This book was not supposed to make me cry."

One of the benefits of writing real-world humor. When the real world stops being funny, it's a pretty big emotional swing (although it's a lot of work to ease the tone back to light).

The best compliment I ever got was from a woman at a conference last year. She said that when she saw that I was going to be there, she switched around her packing so that she could bring her copy of TGF for me to sign.

But the best part was that she told me that she had been frustrated with my book at first, because she was trying to read at her usual speed (the one that let her read three to four books a week) and that she kept tripping up. She said she sighed and said to herself, "Read it the way the author wrote it."

She said the book ended up reminding her how much she loved language and that it has caused her to stop skim-reading to devour a book just for the story.

Obviously, I'm still not over that conversation. i don't think I ever will be.

KateSmash said:

Honestly? Last week I let sir Smash read draft 1.5 of my WIP. At one point (where the stuff really hits the fan) he set it down, glared at me, and hissed "I hate you so much right now" then went right back to reading.

If I can get that response out of everyone, I'll die happy.

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I haven't got anything out for anyone to read yet, but I've never had the nerve to let Mr. Maxwell read anything of mine. I finally handed him a short story, and seeing him laugh at all the right parts gave me all the confidence in the world.

KateSmash said:

Honestly? Last week I let sir Smash read draft 1.5 of my WIP. At one point (where the stuff really hits the fan) he set it down, glared at me, and hissed "I hate you so much right now" then went right back to reading.

If I can get that response out of everyone, I'll die happy.

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If I had a best compliment given to me, I imagine it would be along these lines; that's certainly the type of thing I am likely to say to the author of a book I really love, too.

When my beta looked up and said 'If you kill that character, I won't read the rest.'

TAMaxwell said:

I haven't got anything out for anyone to read yet, but I've never had the nerve to let Mr. Maxwell read anything of mine. I finally handed him a short story, and seeing him laugh at all the right parts gave me all the confidence in the world.

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Mine would sneak into my computer and read my stuff anyway if I didn't let him. It was annoying until I released there's something really motivating about his fan-boyishness. Especially as he's a pretty detached and reserved person 90% of the time.

Yay live-in cheerleaders!

When one of my betas sent me this critique:

"Let me just start off by saying OH MY FUCKING GOD I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU KILLED [bleep]

FUCK. HOLY FUCK. I DID NOT SEE ANY OF THAT STUFF COMING.

SHIT.

...I thought that would get it out of my system, but nope, it's still there...

Anyway. I should move on. I guess. *FUCK*"

Well, mine is a bit different from the compliments you all have shared.

My best compliment was from a reader who told me she had to go change her panites after reading one of my books!

As an erotic writer you can see why such a compliment would make my day

A Very Big Editor said my pet short story was "so beautifully written." Didn't buy it -- in fact, I have to send pet out again today -- but YES! It is, it is, it's beautifully written, I'm a beautiful writer, I writes beautiful, hahahahahahahaha....

Celeste Carrara said:

Well, mine is a bit different from the compliments you all have shared.

My best compliment was from a reader who told me she had to go change her panites after reading one of my books!

As an erotic writer you can see why such a compliment would make my day

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Teehee! I love that.

And your post reminded me of the first time I asked a male friend to review my first-ever sex scene. He did, and gave me some great feedback on male viewpoints.. then a few days later I overheard him discussing the scene with another group of writers. Let's just say he related how titillating he found it, and how he had to go find some alone time afterwards... chortle. He never told me that--but it was delightful to overhear.

Being told my book was funny.

I have two, sorry-

The first- a review that said they loved my book so much they read it on a cell phone because they couldn't put it down. I mean seriously??? (If you do this, my hats off to you, the screen size drives me nuts)

My other said she stayed up until 4:30 am because she couldn't put it down.

Two stand out. The first came from a fan who said he loved the book so much he had someone sculpt a statue of the protagonist. He also had one made and sent to me. It's about a foot tall, and beautiful. It looks exactly like I had the character pictured.

The second came from an editor. During the editing process, she wrote a note in the margin of the manuscript, and underlined a sentence. I read it, expecting it to ask a question, or point out an error. Instead, the margin note read, "This is why I became an editor."

Well, I liked the sentence, too, but coming from a professional editor, it meant something special, and I've never forgotten it.

thedark said:

Teehee! I love that.

And your post reminded me of the first time I asked a male friend to review my first-ever sex scene. He did, and gave me some great feedback on male viewpoints.. then a few days later I overheard him discussing the scene with another group of writers. Let's just say he related how titillating he found it, and how he had to go find some alone time afterwards... chortle. He never told me that--but it was delightful to overhear.

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Now that must have been a great scene. In the future, you might not want to show such a scene to anyone who doesn't have a partner at the moment.

Jamesaritchie said:

Now that must have been a great scene. In the future, you might not want to show such a scene to anyone who doesn't have a partner at the moment.

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Oh James, you made me smile.

Two, actually, from the same person, on two different novels.

In the first, she interrupted her reading to yell at me that she couldn't believe I'd had my character do something. She was very upset. I had her finish the section and she calmed down and forgave me.

During the second novel, she was reading a tense portion and I found her massaging her eyes as though they hurt. I questioned her and she told me she 'forgot to blink' during the reading.

My beta told me that my impaling scene was brilliant.

I was voted most quiet in my high school class. (160 students). My 12th grade teacher read a story I wrote aloud to my class.

When he was done, the girl voted most popular, most likely to succeed and be most famous, etc., etc., cried out, "Oh my God, I can't stop crying." And she couldn't. Later she stopped me in the corridor to tell me how much she loved the story.

I was only sixteen and it was one of the first compliments I'd ever got about anything I wrote. I have never forgotten it and some day I need to track that girl down and tell her.