Come On, Change My Mind ~ Vote In Our Survey :-)

A couple days ago, I posted a poll, soliciting readers’ opinions on what topics they wanted to see in this blog.

I published results the other day and there have been a few votes since then.

Knowing what my readers want is important to me, so I decided to put off a “normal” post and, instead, ask again for those who have yet to vote to, please, take a minute and register your desires.

You can either scroll down two posts or click here…
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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)
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How A Story’s Integrity Can Save It From Certain Criticisms

Haley Whitehall, in a twitter conversation, suggested the topic of this post :-)

Writers receive, if they let themselves, many kinds of criticism; during the writing, if they’re brave, and, almost always, during the final revision process.

Let me give you the etymologies of the two key words of this post:

criticism c.1600, “action of criticizing,” from critic + -ism. Meaning “art of estimating literary worth” is from 1670s.

integrity mid-15c., “wholeness, perfect condition,” from O.Fr. integrité, from L. integritatem (nom. integritas) “soundness, wholeness,” from integer “whole” (see integer). Sense of “uncorrupted virtue” is from 1540s.

So, I’m proposing that, somehow, the “wholeness” and “virtue” of a story can save it from certain negative “estimations” of its “literary worth”.

As always, I’m not writing this post as an “expert” on the topic. I’m a writer and a published author but I make no claim to being a literary expert.

What I can do, though, is to ask questions and share my own experience.

What is the “wholeness” of a story (insert the word “book” if it makes more sense for you…)?

What is its “virtue”?

Did you notice that the etymology of “criticism” said, “art of estimating literary worth”?

It appears that valid criticism involves artists evaluating other artists.

Any two artists will have two unique sets of values when they approach the art of criticizing another artist’s work.

Is the artistic critic evaluating the Whole of the work? Are they sensing the Virtue of the work?

My book was getting criticism well before I began writing it–its theme was shared with many people and their opinions were sought…

As I wrote it, I received feedback from authors and interested readers.

My editor went beyond mere technical appraisal and shared her artistic views of the book.

A special office of review gave me highly-qualified and specific advice.

At each stage of this process I was of two minds: the merely human writer seeking perspective and the Artist, bearing the Book and feeling its Life and Truth…

Sure there were dumb mistakes that the merely human side of me made and they were gratefully attended to.

But my Artist-Self was the Mother of the Book and She, thankfully, was strong enough and clear enough about what the Book needed and deserved.

Does your story or book Speak to you?

Can you hear its demands in spite of well-intentioned criticism from others?

Does your “human”-self interfere with your “artist”-self?
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Our Comment Link Is At The Top of The Post :-)
Follow the “co-author” of Notes from An Alien, Sena Quaren:
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Reading? Writing? Publishing? ~ Results from Our Poll…

There’s a poll I made and you can reach it by clicking here.

It’s been there since the 2nd of January and, just like I wish more folks would comment on individual posts, I wish more folks would take the poll. It can be of great aid in deciding what our readership wants to see here. Multiple answers are accepted :-)

The results, so far, are:

Writing=41.2% ~ Reading and Publishing both=23.5% ~ Other=11.8%

There’s a little link at the bottom of the form to view the results…

Thing is, there have only been 17 votes so far. If I go with the leading result for Writing, at this point in time, I would be ignoring that there’s a sizable count for Other…

The average number of viewers of this blog is somewhere around 45/day.

Wonder what all those other people think? Did they stay around long enough to notice the link to the poll?

I could reason that the people who have voted so far are the ones who are reading the blog and take my cue from them on how to apportion the themes of my posts.

Still, with about four years experience in blogging, I know that there are always more people reading a blog than indicated by actions taken on the blog (polls or comments or links clicked). Of course, there are also always more visitors to a blog than there are people who read it.

This blog is personal to the extent that it fulfills my daily need to write. I fulfill my daily need to read by following the sites in our Blogroll. And, I’ll be fulfilling my need to publish, again, by releasing my book in May…

This blog is social to the extent that I endeavor to create posts of value and interest to my readers…

Did you take the poll yet?

Do you feel a need to tell me more about what you’d like to see here than a poll can capture?

Are you the kind of person who is shy about leaving comments?

Is anyone still reading this post?? :-)
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Follow the “co-author” of Notes from An Alien, Sena Quaren:
On Twitter
AND, Get A Free Copy of Our Book