Say What You Will...
It's odd how many blogs you come across where the writer starts, ends, or both starts and ends his post with something like this:
"I know I'm not a real writer, but I'm trying."
-or-
"Don't feel you have to read this."
Those are pretty short, but sometimes, the explanation is very long-winded and can be an entire paragraph. I don't think there's a single better way to make people want to stop reading than to bother cluttering up your post with a message like that.
"Real" writers, even those that have published books you can buy at your local Borders that have the word "Bestseller" on the cover, get lots of criticism. Those writers know it, and they don't waste any of their time fearing criticism. Is it because they're bestselling authors that they get to ignore what critics say? No, it's the other way around: they're bestselling authors because they write without letting that fear get in the way.
Stephen King's most recent book, Under The Dome, has 700 reviews on Amazon, about 250 of which are one-, two-, and three-star reviews. Stephen King isn't sitting at computer sweating those reviews. He's writing his next one.
I asked a friend of mine if he would mind if I read a short story he had written. He said no, so I asked him to send it to me in an e-mail. I had to remind him a couple of times. When he finally did send it to me, he said, in the body of the e-mail: "Here's the story you've been asking me for. Don't take it too seriously because I wrote it a long time ago and I don't care about it anymore."
After that, do you think I bothered to read it?
Never be self-deprecating if you're just trying to preemptively discourage or address criticism, and never do it at the expense of your reader's attention. Say what you want to say, in your own voice, and say it now. Don't apologize.
"I know I'm not a real writer, but I'm trying."
-or-
"Don't feel you have to read this."
Those are pretty short, but sometimes, the explanation is very long-winded and can be an entire paragraph. I don't think there's a single better way to make people want to stop reading than to bother cluttering up your post with a message like that.
"Real" writers, even those that have published books you can buy at your local Borders that have the word "Bestseller" on the cover, get lots of criticism. Those writers know it, and they don't waste any of their time fearing criticism. Is it because they're bestselling authors that they get to ignore what critics say? No, it's the other way around: they're bestselling authors because they write without letting that fear get in the way.
Stephen King's most recent book, Under The Dome, has 700 reviews on Amazon, about 250 of which are one-, two-, and three-star reviews. Stephen King isn't sitting at computer sweating those reviews. He's writing his next one.
I asked a friend of mine if he would mind if I read a short story he had written. He said no, so I asked him to send it to me in an e-mail. I had to remind him a couple of times. When he finally did send it to me, he said, in the body of the e-mail: "Here's the story you've been asking me for. Don't take it too seriously because I wrote it a long time ago and I don't care about it anymore."
After that, do you think I bothered to read it?
Never be self-deprecating if you're just trying to preemptively discourage or address criticism, and never do it at the expense of your reader's attention. Say what you want to say, in your own voice, and say it now. Don't apologize.