by: Staci Stallings
As authors, we’re told not to react to reviews—at least not directly, out loud or in print. And ultimately that’s probably good advice because a critical review often feels like someone is attacking one of our children. While I don’t respond to critical reviews, I can’t help but think through how I would respond if I either had the chance or didn’t have quite so much self-control.
That’s where I found myself when I read a recent critical review of one of my most reviewed books.
I can’t speak for every author, but I know, for me, critical reviews come in one of four “flavors”:
- It’s too preachy.
- It’s not preachy enough.
- It’s got a lot of typos and it’s badly written.
- It’s supposed to be a Christian book, but these characters don’t act very Christian.
I’m going to leave the first two alone because they are mutually exclusive if you are going on anything other than strict opinion, and I can’t argue you out of your opinion. I’m going to let the third one be because Amazon recently wrote to inform me that I had an extra space in one of my books that needed to be removed because someone complained. (No, I’m not kidding about that.) If readers are going to get that picky, I’m giving up on trying to please them. Not to even mention the ones who have written to complain about my spelling and grammar—and misspelled “spelling and grammar” in the one-sentence review! (Not kidding about that one either.)
Anyway, this particular critical review focused on #4—that the situation the characters were in was “not very Christian.” As I drove after reading it (one of the times I tend to think things through best), I “argued” with the person, trying to explain that I don’t write Christian situations where everybody acts perfectly and always acts (except for the villain) in perfect Christian fashion.
I further pointed out to this nonexistent person that when I write, the thing that attracts me to a story is that the characters are in a mess. If they aren’t in a mess, what’s the point of trying to sort the mess out? Then I had a revelation!
The stories I write start out with a mess, and I pose the question, “What if I dropped God In the middle of this mess and let Him work? What would happen? What miracles might come from it? What lessons would I learn through it?”
99 Cents or Kindle Unlimited
As I contemplated this question, I realized that that’s exactly my overriding philosophy in writing what I write, how I write it. There’s a mess, and a character gets injected into the mess who brings God with them. Untangling things is often rather difficult, but I’ve learned so much from doing this.
So, for example, what if you’ve got a guy whose family is rich, but he’s hurting because his mom died when he was really young and no one ever helped him through that pain and grief? Now he’s engaged to a woman who is using him to get to his family’s money and because he has the right name. He’s not in love with her, but he’s stuck and headed at breakneck speed toward a life he already hates.
That’s a pretty good mess, right?
Okay, so what if we take a young woman who gets a job with his family. She’s on the innocent side, barely surviving financially, but she has learned to cling to God. If you give him, through her, the option of God, what would happen?
OR…
Book 1 “The Grace Series” Kindle Unlimited
What if you have a guy who has a best friend he’s in love with, but she doesn’t see him that way? Then her half-sister who she hates shows up, and he falls for the sister.
You’ve got relationship upheaval, family conflict and drama, conflict with the best friend, issues of following your heart, and on and on.
Now what if the guy happens to know the preacher in town and happens to ask for his advice? What happens if he starts taking the preacher’s advice and letting God deal with all of this?
OR…
Free on Amazon.com
Let’s say there’s a guy who is really shy around women who meets a woman who absolutely hates men. They get thrown together on a couple of projects together, and let’s say that there happens to be a predatory guy after her in the mix, and our hero just wants to protect her, and in the midst of everything, she falls for him? And just to make things really interesting, let’s make him a fire fighter with a death wish and her a major control freak. Big mess until God shows up.
So although I can’t say I was thrilled about the review that kicked all this soul-searching off, it has been rather illuminating in forcing me to clarify why I start where I start, why I write what I write, and how God has been able to work through my books. All-in-all not bad revelations at all.
Take a mess, find a way to drop God in the middle of it, and see what happens.
I kind of like that philosophy.
A stay-at-home mom with a husband, three kids and a writing addiction on the side, Staci Stallings has numerous titles for readers to choose from. Not content to stay in one genre and write it to death, Staci’s stories run the gamut from young adult to adult, from motivational and inspirational to full-out Christian and back again. Every title is a new adventure! That’s what keeps Staci writing and you reading. Although she lives in Amarillo, Texas and her main career right now is her family, Staci touches the lives of people across the globe with her various Internet and writing endeavors.
I love books written by Christian authors. And I’ve read quite a few! The ones I love most are of broken, messy people who can’t find their way in a fallen world. It’s only when they allow God into their hearts that His perfect love changes and shapes them. I’ve also read a few books where the character is perfect and always tuned into God and his purposes. Those only serve to frustrate me as I’ve never met anyone like that! One of the joys of being a believer is that God takes our imperfections and changes us slowly but surely to reflect his perfect love. Thank you for writing about people who aren’t shiny happy people but instead clays of jar waiting for the treasure within to be revealed.
I love how you wrote about God entering the messes and helping your characters out! I just got your free book and I cannot wait to read it!
An extra space? That’s crazy! I like your philosophy, Staci. Keep doing what you’re doing…we can’t please everyone.
I read Christian fiction almost exclusively and I don’t like characters that are too perfect. Life isn’t like that, Life is messy. Keep up the good work.
Also, when I leave a review I rarely mention spelling and grammar errors because I see that as an editing problem, not an author problem. I only mention that if there are so many errors they distract from the story and that is almost never.
Thanks for sharing Staci. How cool that you’ve been able to figure this out.
You have the right attitude, Staci! Keep on writing!
What an awesome revelation! I can see your new taglines and branding now! But… isn’t God good that way?
Life is messy, so I applaud you for telling it like it is. And how sad that someone complained about an extra space. Good grief. :-(
That’s just great and isn’t that how it’s supposed to work? Good for you!
I love how you fill the extra space with words of love, encouragement, faith and love. Never let the doubters stop your forward momentum.
I just had a review that complained about huge numbers of spelling and grammar errors. I really want to comment on it and ask her to help me out by telling me what they were, as I’m pretty sure it might be my use of British grammar and spelling in my British set books! And if it isn’t, I need to know so I can fix it!
I love that approach to writing, Staci! Real Christian’s are perfect, and if we were, we wouldn’t need Jesus. Or have much of a story with only external issues to deal with!
Loved your blog post and your stories.
I had one reviewer say they’d read better work on the back of a cereal box. Not kidding! Oddly enough, it was the only bad review on that book. The rest were five stars. Sometimes bad reviews feel (to me) like a personal rejection, because as you say, they’re essentially calling your baby ugly! I pray for those people, because something in my book affected them for whatever reason, enough to leave a review. God knows their hearts and can reach them when I can’t.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts and insights. I think real life is messy and, although I want the romance novels I read to be sweet, I want to read about real people (a little messy).
Thanks for sharing! Great philosophy. My only complaint about messy characters is when the author leaves them messy until the very last minute of the book :-)
Thanks for sharing this, Staci. You’re right that you can’t please everyone, and some people are so critical that they are seldom pleased. I like your “revelation” that you drop God into messy situations and messy characters to develop your story. I’ve read several of your stories and have loved them all. I need to get caught up on the rest of them. So many books, so little time!
Shona, I think we’re all those jars of clay, and some of us are more broken than not! Thanks for stopping by! God bless!
I sincerely hope you love it! God bless you!
I had to read that email three times to make SURE that’s what they were talking about. *shakes head!*
We love our readers out there! Keep on reading!!! God bless you!
I think sometimes God nudges me in a good direction and sometimes He shoves me that way. :) Thanks for reading! Have a blessed week!
God bless you! Thanks for stopping by!
What I like most is that God enters MY mess and helps ME sort things out. Without Him, I would truly be lost!
God bless and thanks for sharing the journey with me, Val.
HAHA! I’ve been in this game a long time. I’ve seen a LOT of very strange things. That extra space was one of the funnier ones!
Yep. It’s taught me a lot about real life too because I think that’s exactly how God works!
I won’t lie. They have at times slowed me down, but so far, God’s kept me going. Committed to filling that “extra space” with only good things!
Boy, Autumn, you are BRAVE to do the British spelling. HAHAHA! That’s what I thought as well… wouldn’t be much of a story without the mess, but what do I know? :) Happy writing!
Thanks, Linda! And thanks for stopping by! God bless you!
Thanks for spending a little time with us over here talking romance novels. Readers are the best! God bless you!
I’m not a fan of “instant conversions.” In mine, the characters often take the long road to “get there.” Very similar to real life, I think.
Now you sound like me, except from a writing perspective. I’ve got so many stories floating around in my head and so little time to get them down! Thanks for reading and stopping by! God bless you!
Most of the time I’m just really glad they have a million other authors to read and review, and they aren’t stuck just reviewing mine! Keep the faith, Deb! God bless!