Hi Theresa--Thanks for your feedback. That's a really interesting idea!

Lucy

Of course everyone can use at their own, but for me there's a difference between trolls and plain honest critique - which is invaluable if you're writing! We don't learn from mollycoddling, but how to win over critiques. I left my critter group of many years because everyone by now was so familiar with my characters they just agreed with everything and everything was perfect and oh so wonderful. That didn't improve my writing at all - it stagnated. Thos nasty comments were the ones that got me thinking and trying new ways - I had to look beyond my not so perfect world to see what the reader did. That was or is never easy and outright painful sometimes, but it's a path of growing. My sister - who's a published writer and NY times bestselling author - told me when I tipped my toe in: You're not ready. You will have to grow a really thick skin to become a writer. And she was right. Boy was she right. But I learn. I listen. Sometimes I simply ignore if the person is obviously so far off from my target audience, there is no way they will "get me or my story" - but otherwise I try out. If it works great, if it doesn't sound right for me I go back. I don't have to accept what people tell me, it's my story. But there might be a tiny chance they might be on something - in that case I better think about it, especially if I have heard it before. Yep, it would be nice if all wrapped their critique in cotton balls and offered me hot chocolate before throwing their punches - but... I'd rather have it dished out and get back to work.

Of course I agree if it's all about hobby and fun writing forget what I said. Then mollycoddling might be enough. If it's more - skip over what's simply rude as in troll. The rest might have something to say but hasn't applied the correct language maybe.

--edited by lilmerlin on 9/29/2015, 9:07 AM--