Feedback Is Always Important, No Matter What

Feedback is important for authors in some ways.

Other ways, it’s detrimental, and as an artist whose music I love said recently, “Don’t read the comments.”

Reading negativity can become a brain worm and affect your artistic sensibilities.

My debut novel, Auminous, recently had such feedback.

I always welcome feedback, whether good or bad. That someone took time out of their day and used their hard-earned money on my books makes me happy even if the book wasn’t for them.

This one isn’t so bad, though, because it seems to be more about taste rather than writing skill.

I must wonder if they read my author’s introduction which states this book’s cast is an ensemble cast of characters, meaning each one is a main character. They were upset when one of the villains broke the fourth wall because they weren’t the protagonist (even though, as an ensemble character, Xantheus is a protagonist/antagonist concurrently).

Konner, Euthalia, Xantheus, and Tynan are all main characters, and the story format is a kishotenketsu format, not three-act. It is a four-act novel, so Konner answers the hero’s call a tad bit later than a three-act would have it.

The reason Konner doesn’t quote “do something” right away is because kishotenketsu needs more setup.

The crux of the novel is the ten section in kishotenketsu in the third part of the novel, the shift that changes the perspective of the rest of the book. That one event makes the rest of the novel shift in tone and careful readers will realize it was there the whole time.

I don’t want to write three-act novels. That is part of my flavor as an author, and, of course, that won’t be for everyone.

But the title is Auminous, not Konner. The Auminous Sect is the focal point of the book, and I wrote it in the spirit of The Screwtape Letters. Meaning God is portrayed as the enemy to the Auminous Sect, and the “hero” isn’t the point of the story.

There were no harsh words about the writing skill itself, so that makes me happy.

The other thing I found strange is the complaint about the gruesome scenes and alchemy. The book’s genre is gothic horror, so I don’t know how to tell them this, but this isn’t a cozy romance novel full of kittens. And the main villains use a dark science that could be considered alchemy, though its mechanism differs as they transmute blood into golden apostherium to tune to the quantum world using the moonlight.

Still, feedback is a valuable tool.

I think it’s awesome my books are being read.
As an artist, Auminous is what it is, and I believe in my work.

I’d be a fool to think every person will be pleased with my work, but that’s not what I’m aiming for. I’m writing for myself first, then to the people who will “get it.”

I’ve got Numinous: The Golden Tunists, Criminous, Luminous, and Acuminous left to make a grand narrative over the next four years or so with this series.

I’m not happy as an artist with my novella, Numinous, so I’m expanding it later this year to a standard I’m satisfied with, adding new arcs and the like, using the novella as a bridge.

There were things in the story that made me wonder how the heck I came up with some of it, but I’ve got to follow my writerly instincts.

It’s the same with Lowella Re: Wind (a play on words because of story elements). My social commentary will become a choose-the-character-adventure-style story in its expansion.

Besides, I have the support of people who enjoyed Auminous, some of which read widely, so I’m sure it’s not fundamentally broken in some way.

This is a moment of learning for me. To truly show me, not everyone is going to like what I put out there.

But we can’t let this get us down as authors, musicians, or anything else in this life.

We’ll have those who love our work, and those that don’t.

That’s great!

It means we’re doing something!

But no matter what, I will continue writing stories. It’s my God-given gift and I must respect that by working on my craft.

An artist’s work never ends.

But we wouldn’t have it any other way, would we?😉