Bob Schroeck Wrote:Yeah, I suppose that's true. And I have tried to accept that over the years, hard as it's honestly been for me to do just that.Quote:what I - and I'm sure others feel this way - don't like is experiencing the feeling of people "talking" behind my back.The thing is, Fred, that's almost the only way people can talk about written works. Places like here and the EPU Forums where the reader interacts directly with the author(s), they're rare even now, and ten-fifteen years ago? Unheard of. Yes, there was the FFML, but it existed for feedback -- it was essentially a floating writers' workshop before it became little more than a distribution channel. Outside of places like that, well, commentary that isn't shared with the author is the rule. whether you're a fan writer or a pro. People will have opinions on what they read, and will talk to others about them, and they're allowed to. And unless you have the resources of the NSA you can't possibly listen in on all those discussions and monitor all those opinions.
That's something I learned back in college, actually -- an important part of becoming a writer is realizing and really understanding that once you release a work into the world, it isn't just yours anymore. It belongs as much to the readers as to you, and you can't take that back, and you can't force the readers to behave the way you want, where and when you want. The most successful works are dynamic collaborations between the imagination of the writer and the imaginations of the readers, but in order to achieve that, you have to let your work go to wander the world where it will, like a child leaving home for the first time. You may not approve of the company it keeps, or their opinions, or where it ends up living -- but you can no more yank a released story back and say "my interpretation, my vision only" any more than you can drag an adult child back home and make them stay in their room. All you can do is celebrate the good, ignore the bad, and keep working and growing.
Still, there have been the people who have taken the effort to comment on my works. I have appreciated those comments a lot . . . so when things like the situation I mentioned previously does happen, I've always wondered to myself, "If they've got a problem with this, why don't they write me directly?"
Ah, well . . . back to finishing off the next part of Children of Oki-shima . . .
Canadian lighthouse to U.S. Warship approaching it: "This is a lighthouse. Your call!"