When I write about a team sport for a newspaper or a website, I try to mention as many players on both the winning and losing teams. I do this because I want to give the reader a feel for the team aspect of the game. Maybe a basketball player scored 45 points, or a football player rushed for 175 yards, but the game was still a team event. In order to properly describe it, more than just the star's name needs to be mentioned.
I did this – or, at least, I thought I did this – at one high school softball game I covered many years ago. The final score was 8-7 or 7-6. Many runs were scored, and there were several athletes with a run scored, a run batted in, or both. I was able to fit in 17 names into my story.
Nevertheless, the first feedback I got on the story that ran in the newspaper was that I was not paying any attention to the game, because I did not mention the one team's catcher. A fan (no, it was not a relative of the catcher) told me that she did the best job of a catcher that he had ever seen, and had guided her pitchers like a professional.
I went back into my notes. The catcher is question had no hits, no RBIs, no runs scored. She did not make any mistakes while catching, but did not do anything spectacular. And as far as handing the pitchers so well, those pitchers did give up several runs in the game.
This was one of my earliest lessons in one of the worst kinds of criticism a writer can receive. Not that you wrote something poorly. Eventually, a writer expects a few readers who don't like the styles or word choices used.
Much worse is the criticism about what you did not write. Very often, there's not much that can be done about it.
In the case of the softball game, I had a limited amount of space for my story. This was pre-internet, so my story had to fit in a specific spot in the newspaper. With so many players hitting so well, there was not room to include someone who had no hits and no runs.
But the same thing can happen to the author of a book. Readers finish the story, and whether or not they liked what they read, some will come back to the author upset that some theme was not addressed or a plot point was not included.
“Why didn't the deputy have a love interest?”
“We never learned about the spy's family.”
“How could you not include the political aspect of this story?”
An author needs to have a thick skin for any criticism, but especially for this kind. Chances are, if you have a finished story and these plot points or themes are not included by that stage, trying to put them in now would just ruin the pace of your story.
The best way to deal with observations or critiques about what you did not write, the best response is simple:
It's okay.
It's okay that the reader did not find out every romance that might be happening to each and every character. It's okay that not each relative of the main character is introduced. It's okay that your story did not turn into a political statement. It's okay that your story did not include everything each reader might have thought of.
Even the best, longest, most epic novels do not cover everything. Often, they are better because the author knew what things to not include, because including too much would hurt the story's flow.
You will always find someone who can criticize what you wrote, and you can always find someone to criticize what you didn't write. But knowing what not to write is part of what makes the things to did write so much better.
Next week: Taking a break to prepare for my first television appearance as an author.
Two weeks from now: “So, how does it feel?”