Should Authors Criticize Other Authors?

Most writers get trapped in the cycle of chasing the "perfect" advice, but what if the secret to authentic storytelling is actually ignoring all the so-called rules? In this episode, Liza and Sydney rip apart the myth that success comes from following formulas—revealing that your voice and unique perspective are your greatest assets. If you're tired of cookie-cutter advice, aimless plotting, and social media noise, this conversation is a must-listen.

You'll discover how to cultivate your unique storytelling voice even as you navigate the sea of generic "success tips." Liza shares her raw, unconventional approach to plotting—dropping crumbs like Hansel and Gretel toward a story only you can tell. Sydney challenges the idea that writing needs to be perfect right out of the gate, emphasizing that many famous authors agonize over their work publicly—and that’s part of the creative process. They break down how social media and industry advice often promote fear, self-doubt, and conformity, instead of celebrating individual expression.

They cover the importance of trusting your instincts, ignoring the "rules" that silence your voice, and embracing imperfections as part of your artistic identity. Whether you're a debut novelist or a seasoned pro feeling burned out by the endless stream of "must-do" strategies, this episode reminds you that being genuine and true to yourself is often the best way to connect with readers—and find your own success.

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

So basically, you're saying that readers just can't trust blurbs at all. So we had the best writer circle last night. We really did. We dove deep into each other's plots last night, and you really helped me with my Russian subplot and even continued to text me ideas after, which was so helpful, and I really appreciate it. It I mean, it's so much fun to talk about specifically Russian history, but also history in general. Like when you are like, I want to pull from something that Lisa knows about, I'm just like, oh my God, let me help you. I want to tell you all the like weird little stories and toys that I know. I just sit I just stare at you starry-eyed, like tell me everything. Yeah, well, you didn't stare at me starry-eyed last night when I went about when I went on and on about the Harman wheel. I was trying. I mean, it's a basic plotting device, but I mean, I made it sound so complicated. And uh, you know, it's funny though. Uh, you brought up what's her face? Beach read. What's her name? Oh, Emily Henry. Yeah, you brought up Emily Henry, and you know, Beach Reed is basically literally what I described. Like the Harman wheel being you start out at an equilibrium, but you have some problems, and then you go down into a quote unquote basement kind of place that has secrets that are gonna make you grow, and you battle with those secrets, and then you come out the other end, having grown into, you know, your regular house living room space, and but you're a different person, you know, you've done the battle in the basement, and it's like in Meet Reed, like she's literally in a house with a basement that has a secret that she has to go into about her dad, and then she has to face her dad's secret. Like she's and once she does, she comes out a better person figuring out her relationships, and she doesn't need to be constantly thinking about what's in the basement anymore, and she's happy with her new husband on her in her beach living room, you know. Like, well, yeah, I looked it up afterwards. Um, and for our listeners, when I asked her about this, she started explaining it. And when Lisa gets excited about something, she's really excited about it, and she starts explaining it very intricately, and I'm sure if I was as intelligent as you, I would have been able to understand. But then I just ended up thinking to myself, all right, I don't know what she's saying. I know she's trying to tell me something that's very important. But I flipped on it and now, and now I I get it. And you ended up sending me, she ended up very graciously sending me and our other friend um who was on last week, uh Erica, her latest plot using this method. And it was very exciting. I'm so excited for you to start writing and to get this one out into the world. Yeah. It's uh it's gonna be fun. It's gonna be more commercial, but uh and I hope that I can write it quick. That's what I want to do. What's your challenge to yourself? Like, do you have a timeline goal? I should. I you know what? I want to write a quick book, but I'm not being quick about the planning yet. So we could have the same deadline because we're kind of writing the same style of book. I've barely started mine. I'm only like 7,000 words in, so we could have the same deadline of December 1st. I'm zero words in. I I just have I have the the plot. I I have all my plotting. I have all my intricate plotting, and I started writing the first chapter, and I was like, I just kept crawling out in the first like two paragraphs. I was like, oh, those are the hardest to write. Those are the hardest because you're like, where do I start? What's the tone? Who needs to be on the page first? That's always the hardest for me. The first 10,000 words are like nails on chalkboard crawling on the ground. Well, for me, it's uh there's a lot of pressure in the first few sentences of a book because literally every sentence matters. The further you get into a book, you you shouldn't write anything that doesn't matter. Everything that you write should have a purpose. But in the first few sentences in that first paragraph, you are trying to write sentences that tell you about the character, about the world, about the scene, that move everybody along and tell them a ton of information. Yes. And you have to incl you have to kind of do sentence gymnastics where you're doing a million flips in one sentence at a time, if that makes sense. And like if if your first paragraph in a commercial book better move quickly and better move, better give people everything they need to know to say this is worth it. Yeah, they have to be grounded in it, they have to know what the stakes are, they have to know the characters, and you can't be like interesting, but yes, intricate. Yes, you can't introduce too many characters at once. It's it's a whole thing. You can't say, um, all right, so now here we are in a house. There's a history with these sisters, they had an abusive dad, you know, and and you can't you can't say everything right there. You have to just slowly embed it into the into the story. And absolutely true. I mean, I think that the main thing you have to do, this is why I have started to really like planning. And you saw it in my outline last night, like what I wanted, and if I went, I do have like the beginnings of a chapter by chapter outline as well. And I've started to think of it more as information delivery. Like, what information do I want to deliver here? Like, I'm I'm almost like it's like I have I have the whole book. Like it's like in a sack. It's like a sack of little gold nuggets or crumbs that you can follow, like Hansel and Gretel. And what I want to do is just drop these little crumbs in a tantalizing path for my readers, my Hansel and Gretels, I love it to my witch house where I can kill them. Do you know what I mean? Like Oh, I love that. I want the I I want Hansel and Gretel to be like, oh, okay, I found another one. I found another one. And there's a decision process being made when you're outlining a book where you're going, what's the best crumb to drop here? And how many crumbs should I drop in this chapter versus the next chapter? And you start kind of apportioning everything out. It's a really fun process. Well, and how big should the crumb be? You know, like how noticeable on the page should it be? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

unknown 6:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 6:56

So I think we should move on to our wait, what? Where today we're talking about whether or not authors should freely critique other authors' work and uh if they should be allowed to uh offer more critical uh critiques. Because right now I would say it is a total faux pas to say something negative about another author's work. Yeah, I think it's I I I kind of think it's rightly taboo. That should be reserved for like private circles. So you think, let's say okay, but how do you handle this when an author is given a book and asked to write a blurb about it? Okay. And that's kind of pressure, first of all. It's not like you can say we can say no. You could say no. Yeah, you could say no, but then it's kind of like, I don't know, it's it's sending a message. It's not good for building relationships or networking, you know. I feel like can readers trust blurbs? Like no. I it Oh, so basically you're saying that readers just can't trust blurbs at all. No, how can you trust it? If it's a if it's a faux pas to say something negative, no one is. If you're not saying something negative, it's a private business interaction in the background where you decided not like it's not like the book says this like this famous author refused to write a blurb for for this book, quote, you know. Well, they're gonna say, can you read this book and will you write a blurb about it? And in doing that, you're building your network and you're building relationships. And so this author might think, sure, yeah, I'll I'll read it. And then let's say they hate it or they don't think it's that good. They're not gonna say, send it back and say, Well, I was really underwhelmed and the plot left me wanting for more. You know, they can't say that. So I always kind of wonder like, what even is the point of having these blurbs on there, like like the most tantalizing, scary thriller, leave you shaking in your boots, you know, and then there's an author name beneath. I I don't ever pay attention to that. I think that blurbs then to me are just they're just a business interaction. And what you're seeing is that this this author got networked into getting this author to say nice things about the book. Like that's what I would say if I'm looking at a blurb. There's a difference though, when let's say an author goes on some sort of publicity tour, is talking on podcasts, and another author is brought up, and let's say they don't like their work, are they going to make any comment or not? I think that that's a big faux pas. Yeah, I agree. And faux pas kind of downplays it. Like I think it's actually just like I don't know. I think it's bad form. Oh, I do too. I I don't think even though I don't believe the blurbs, I think it's the right thing. I think uh you shouldn't tear down another creative. I just think it's it's tacky, it's kind of cruel. And also, who are you to say what's good and bad art? Well, here's the thing though. Here we go. Well, I can probably think of quite a few eccentric public personalities who were creatives and artists and stuff like that who are just like, I hate so-and-so. That's in this that's in the same creative field. Yeah. I'd like what I I'm God. Okay, well you're gonna I'm gonna have to do some research for this. Uh I mean if it's like what's that guy's name, like Perez Perez Hilton? Perez Hilton? Is he the one that's like the gossiper who like talks about the gossip columnist from the early 2000s? He talks bad about everyone. Oh, he's a gossip columnist. Like the I like I'm thinking about like I am certain that you know Picasso said that some artists were schmucks. Like, like artists are incredibly catty at each other, and you actually sometimes get good attention, like the it the kind of bad good attention that you want for saying, you know, bad things in public. So I'm like, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say that in writing and stuff like that, like you should do it, but I wouldn't be surprised if, you know, someone makes headlines within the next few years saying, like, I think so-and-so is a bad writer, you know? Yeah. Who was that director recently that just said, just like tore down that actor and said he was terrible and and Hollywood kind of revolted against him and like stood up for this actor and was like he never should have said that. I have no idea. All I know is that Timothy Chalamet said that he didn't like ballet and everybody killed him. Yes. Well, I mean like a pretentious Yeah, or like he was saying that it wasn't it was like an outdated form of entertainment, or like no one watches that anymore. And I was like, give me a break, dude. I mean, come on. That or that was so irksome. And then he couldn't even take a joke. He lost him the Oscar, I think. I think that he would have won an Oscar if he was a big deal. Well, then he left in the Oscars for a a while after they tore him up on stage. He couldn't even like laugh at himself. I don't know. That really I'm not gonna judge anybody for like that level of pressure. That's just you know, yeah. I don't know. We I feel like when you're an actor or you're on a stage of any form, uh even authors will encounter this where you're gonna be in the public eye and people are gonna tear you apart, and sometimes you just have to smile and fake it and pretend that you're okay. And oftentimes that's the best way to handle it is just to smile through it. Because he ended up just getting torn up for that too, about not being able to laugh at himself, about leaving, about that he's a poor sport. And I mean, that's what happens when anybody's bullied. Yeah. You know, like that you're just caught up in a whole thing where whatever you do, if he stood up for himself, if he if he didn't, th there were gonna be naysayers that said, you know, he's a bad person that deserves all of us to laugh at him for this period of time. Yeah. But although I would argue that if he had just sat there and laughed at the jokes and was a good sport about it, you know, people would stop. Once you start when when a bully sees that they can't ruffle your feathers, they stop trying to ruffle them. So maybe, yeah. Well, I'll say this. I don't want to be a bully in the publishing industry and say my real opinions of who I think is a good writer, who isn't a good writer, or what a what a good book is. Like I ha I I think that there's a level of professionalism which is unfortunately a sort of white line. Like you're telling you're telling your friend that she looks good in that dress. You know? And you've never done that to me, right?

unknown 14:09

No.

SPEAKER_03 14:10

But like it's I I think but I think it's for a greater purpose, you know. Yeah. Even though people might like, even though it's not necessarily in service to the readers, I think that you're recognizing that there are many different readers out there. You're not the you're not the only reader in the world, and there are many potential fans for that book, and uh respecting another writer's uh go-gettedness, you know, they what is that saying? They gotta get their bag, like like respecting that with your fellow writers in publishing, I think is important and generally good form. I agree too. And think about it with music, you know. Let's say they ask a classical pianist, you know, what they think of Ariana Grande, and let's say they hate Ariana Grande's music, you know, they're not gonna say that. There's millions of people that love her. She's just a different style, just because they don't like it, you know, and so I think it's the same thing with books. I mean, there's even books by classic authors that I struggle to read, and I re fully recognize this is a me issue because of the language, or maybe it's not the genre I'm looking for, but I can't I can s sit back and objectively say this book offers something. There's fans of this, this is very beautiful writing, even though it's not for me. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And also there's a there there's a definite line between critic and creator. And you you kind of don't want to mix those, right? Like being a professional critic, like because I I've I thought about before I started writing myself. I was like, maybe I could do some sort of like literary criticism or film criticism or something like that. I know other people who are developers for games who did consider earlier in their careers starting blogs about like critiquing and reporting on different games. And they ultimately, along with myself, decided just like no, no, no, no. If if if I'm gonna create, I don't want to mix that at all. I I actually suspect like there were I'm certain that there have been anonymous critiquers who are also creators. But there's a reason why they keep themselves anonymous because they don't want their own work to be impacted by the repercussions of the things that they say about other people's work. Plus, I you can learn something from any author. So why tear them down? There's just no point. We should just support each other. And it's already hard enough to do anything in this field. It's like to do anything, it takes forever, and it's so hard, and it's like pulling teeth. So just don't make it harder. You know, there's no point for it. Yeah. Yeah. I I I agree. It's so funny though. Like in the back of my mind, there's like a little gremlin going, like, why are you being so nice? I same. Same. Actually, for we, you know, I've cons I considered the reviewing too. Like when I first thought of the podcast, I was like, maybe we should have a section where we review literary works. And then I I quickly was like, no, that just feels dirty and wrong. I'd much rather have guests on to talk about their work than for us to talk about other authors' work. It just feels like gossiping or something. I don't know. Let the critics, let the fans decide whether they like whatever has been produced. We can talk amongst ourselves offline about whether we liked a book or not, you know? Definitely. I think that that's the best way to go about it. Even though it it's kind of boring. Like for the audience, they must be just like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. So moving on and keeping our theme cohesive this week, let's move on to our main act where we're talking about is the market oversaturated with author advice to other authors? Are people really wanting to hear what they should and shouldn't be doing with their work? Or are they really just looking for author buddies and friends and support? I mean, what what do you think about this? That's what I'm looking for personally. I every time I come on Instagram and I see like, here are the here are the things that you need for your book to be published. Here are the five things that are wrong with your writing. Here are whatever. I immediately swipe past. I can't, I can't do it anymore. You do. I I'm tempted. I I they get me, I get the clickbait. Or like, here's how to make your dialogue stronger. I will click on that every single time. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I it's just, you know what? I think that basically when I think of social media or think of YouTube, there's a lot of repetition going on.

SPEAKER_00 19:04

True.

SPEAKER_03 19:04

There's a lot of creators who are copying what they see is going viral, and it's a repetition just in a different order, or maybe even in the same order, of the same five things that you can do with your dialogue. And I hate it because and I I I think I've just always recoiled to the idea of this is what you do to be successful in your art. Like I understand that there are rules. I understand, like with drawing, there are certain basic uh guidelines that you can follow in order to have a par-level drawing, you know. Same thing with writing. There are a lot of techniques that you can implement that across the board will always work to make a sellable piece of literature. But I'm not interested in that. Interesting. That makes sense. I'm like, I read my writing, I read other people's writing, and I want to create something more individual, something that manipulates the rules that I already know. And I I don't want to be told yet again to cut out filler words. You know? Yeah. Like, like I forget, what's a good filler word? Um like hear, see. Yes, she saw him walk in the room instead of he walked into the room. Yes, I got it. I don't need to learn that again. I don't know, that's how I feel. I don't know. I feel like it's nice if you're not sharing techniques or sharing tools, it feels almost like gatekeeping to me. Like we should share the wealth. And not everyone knows that rule. And so you've seen it a bunch of times, but maybe a new writer needs it to be on multiple platforms so they can see it. You know, they're not going to see the same ones you are. Um, but I do hear what you're saying. I don't like the definitive you have to do this to be successful or not successful. I do feel like though, it's for clickbait, so people will look at their posts because it's less alluring to say something like, Here are some ideas you could do, but don't have to to be successful, you know?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:19

So there's some of that going on too. And and that's my issue with social media is that it's very it's it's not genuine or real a lot of the times. A lot of it's fear-based, where you'll see the the headline and it says the five things you're doing wrong that are keeping your book from being published or whatever. And it's just like I hate that. You know? Yeah and and you're of course pulled in because you're like, am I doing something wrong? Yeah, like what am I doing? Or or this is the classic one. This is why you're not hearing back from literary agents and then it tells you all the things. Because that hits right at the really vulnerable core. Of like I'm not hearing back from literary agents, so I'm probably doing this. Yeah. When when in fact the the actual answer is not going to be in a list, very likely. It's gonna be far blander. Like you just have to wait. You know? Like it's just that's that's it. Or like there are concrete examples, like you needed to get an editor for your query letter. And that really helped, right? Yeah, oh yeah. That was that was a big bolster for you in getting listened to by agents. And so I I absolutely think that like there is concrete advice out there that can be given. I'm not saying that there isn't, but oftentimes it's just far more boring and not fun for a video. Like I think people need to realize that all these how-to videos, they are not just education, they're entertainment too. So when you're watching them, you know, if you're on your fifth, these are the five things you're doing wrong, video of the day, maybe you should turn off YouTube and start writing. Yeah, yeah. And do the wrong thing again and be okay and forgive yourself and have someone in a writing group after you're done writing the project tell you that you did it wrong. So here's the uncomfortable question I have. We do a little bit of that on here. We give advice. Yeah, yeah. What do you think about that? I guess we're some evil bitches, you know. I knew it. I mean, of course you have to, if you're producing content for YouTube, you're going to be interacting with that. You're going to be producing that kind of content as well. And I I think that the best thing that I can do is like, yeah, sure, I produce that content, but I'm also warning you like, if I'm the fifth video that you watch today, keep watching it. Keep watching it and then turn it off. Yes, turn me off and start writing. Like, I think that YouTube and Instagram and all the social media out there, all the book talk, all of that stuff is can be a crutch for creatives. When in fact, what you need to do is get tested for ADHD and put on some spa music and get yourself writing. I s you know, this is interesting because I've kind of been going down a rabbit hole in between projects. I'm I'm having a hard time transitioning because I'm doing my edits, second round of edits now, and it's hard for me to do two projects at once. So I've been I've been consuming a lot of this book talk content, and I noticed I started questioning my voice of like how should I write the sentence? And it's it's really getting to me. In fact, it'll make you question yourself. It's so bad. It it does. Like I I got on my my book actually last week and I started editing, and I was like, why did I write this sentence like that? This is terrible, or this is not at all following the rules, and then I would delete that, and then I started having this this desire to delete like whole sections, and I had to stop myself because that would be not good. And I yeah, I've been having to fight through that a little bit. And I this is the first time I've not ever dealt with that. I think the pressure of knowing that my book is coming out in eight months, and this is my final time to look at it before I can't touch it anymore. It's going to copy edits, you can't change things anymore. And there's a part of me that's like, is this shit? Like, am I gonna be, is this am I gonna be so ashamed and embarrassed? No, it's not. It's not shit. It's not shit. Like you've had enough people bet on it that you know it's not shit. That's that's the main thing. And I understand that you're worried about it. It's incredibly stressful. I completely get that. You're also kind of in a new way that you've never experienced before, where there will be a point at which your book puts on its little backpack and goes off to its first day of school, and you literally can't do anything about what's gonna happen. If there's bullies, if there's bullies to my book, I can't protect it. No. And and there will be. And they're gonna say mean things. They hopefully they won't be your fellow writers. I know, I know. Yeah, maybe that's it, is that I'm trying to protect it from all the things I know people will say about certain things because I see it over and over again on Instagram and TikTok and all of that. And so I'm like doing everything I can to protect my book from every angle, and I need to just stop because it's gonna make me let it go. It's gonna make me lose my voice. And so I just gotta love it. You know, it always comes back to we gotta love it. Just like if your own child's going to school and being bullied, you know, you gotta love your child first and not try and turn your child into someone else so they don't get bullied. You gotta just accept them for who they are, make them love them for who you are who they are. So that's what I gotta do. I gotta overcome this, this fear. This is all coming from fear. 100%. And what stirs up fear? The best social media. Like that's it runs on fear. The whole social media engine runs on people's fear for themselves, for others. It it runs on negative emotions. And I think it's just, I don't know, I think it's really bad. I don't think or at least I think it's bad like ice cream is. I think it's bad like potato chips are, cake, or whatever. You know, it tastes good, it's fun for a bit, and indulge in it sometimes. Sometimes I will I will pull up a series of how-to YouTube videos and just have some fun and relax for a bit. Sure. But in general, I'm kind of done with with the writing ones. Because, you know, people make fun of AI writing, but they don't, they haven't started making fun of social media how-to writing, you know, where I I actually think that it kind of deadens and flattens voice. Just like you said, like you're starting to doubt your own voice. I also think that, you know, whenever I whenever I see stuff from like, I'm an agent, you know, I'm an agent with 20 years of experience in in publishing, and I'm putting out all of my, you know, how-to stuff. I'm putting, I'm putting up a carousel of pictures saying, here are the things that you should improve about your writing in order for me to accept you, or someone in my field to accept you. And I'm like, don't do it. Don't look. You know, right, write whatever the fuck you want to write. You know? Someone other than this bitch will accept you. Like, I don't know. Yes. You are so right. I click on those and I have an agent and I don't need an agent, but I'll still click on those and be like, what? What is it? What's the answer? Yes, exactly. And like, I don't know. It's it's so, so fucking bland. Like that's a true thing I can't stand. And that's uh that is one thing I've been thinking too, is that I I I was scrolling through Kindle last night looking for a new read, and I was like, I just want something different. Please, to something different that's unique. And I yeah, I just want people to have their own voice. Like your story doesn't need to sound like someone else's. They're already writing it. Write your own. Yes. Yes, exactly. And write it in your particular way, even if that way has mistakes. Like there are times when I will just go just down the self-publishing like hole, like, and I'm just like, give me something raw, you know? Like, I I don't care how many mistakes it has. I just want to know, does this person have an interesting thought in their head? And if you have interesting things to say, I don't care as much how you say them, actually. Yeah. I I agree. That's just me. No, I I think I used to be more wanting it to be polished, but the more I've read over the years, the more I'm like, I've seen this before. I've I've heard this thing described in this way so many times. I've seen this character reincarnated in so many different books. I I don't want this character anymore. Give me the character that's kind of weird, and and I've actually been thinking that too. I I'm challenging myself uh to I want to write a really weird horror book that's just strange and makes people feel off and uncomfortable, weird characters. I just want to write something different. I okay, so I want you to read this book because you want to write a weird horror book. Okay, it's called The Laws of the Skies, and I'm gonna massacre this guy's name. It's French. Okay, it was translated by Rhonda Mullins, originally written in French, possibly Quebecois because it looks like it was published in Toronto, but uh Gregoire uh courtoire? I don't know. Anyway, uh it's called The Laws of the Skies is fucked. Like it is a messed up, very fun, interesting story. But yeah, it's gross. It's can't wait. Yeah, yeah, it's gross, it's unusual. I I you I'm pretty certain that you haven't read something like it before, and maybe it'll give you some some good food for thought. And you know, I was recommending this to you last night, but I'll tell listeners too. I just started watching, I'm almost finished now. I only have one episode left of Something Very Bad Is Gonna Happen on Netflix. It's a horror series. Finally, a unique story. It is so weird, it touches on every horror trope. It's so unique and amazing. The script writing, the the camera angles, just every choice is so spot on and artistic. I have been completely enthralled in this series. It's amazing. Fantastic. You know, as long as we're talking about television, I have another recommendation for for listeners out there. Widow's Bay is really good as well. I I know that I recommended to you last night, but specifically related to what we're talking about right now, which is advice, like general advice about writing and whether it applies to you or not. There is an episode where I watched it and I was shocked because I hate unreliable narrator, usually. I'm like, it's really, yeah. I I think it's actually difficult to pull off. And usually when I see it in television, I'm just like, I don't think that worked. Or like I saw it coming a mile away. There's something about it where I'm just like, I don't like it. I don't necessarily rec recommend it. And I also don't like when like there's backtracking in time. Like I generally think that stories should just move forward. Like it's all about motion forward in the plot, and you don't want to repeat information. You don't want to drag people back into the morass of what has already happened. They they already know, and you don't you don't want to repeat. Oh, repeating. You don't mean flashbacks. No, it's not flashbacks. It's like literally like if you have, you know, if you just if you have repetition in your story, like you, you go to other characters and they're back in time or something like that. Usually I'm like, be careful with that. That can be boring. That bores me. This episode did both, and it was I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I was so excited about it, and it was really fun to see just how expertly this television show is written and how how much it's paying off. I can't wait. I cannot wait to watch that. Yeah. So, I mean, uh let me give you an example of repetition that I hate though. Have you seen Backgrounds? No. Okay. It's really it's a big, big horror movie that that um come out um from the past week or so or past couple weeks. And uh making a ton of money, tons of people love it. Anyway, so generally it's a good movie. I watched it and it did this thing, writing-wise, where I had to watch people discover that they could walk through a wall like three times. And I was like, by the third time, I was like, we are 70% through this movie. Why am I watching someone discover that they can go through the same exact freaking wall again? Like, no, we are not doing this. I like, I was like, that's a that's a writing mistake. I think it's across the board, it applies every time. Unless you have some sort of profound trick up your sleeve, I don't think repetition way into the end of the book, uh, where a person your audience has to watch the exact same emotion and exact same sequence of events. Like, I just don't think it works. Unless they have an artistic reason of like one. That's what I'm saying. Unless uh the trick up your sleeve can be an artistic reason, but like they had an artistic reason in this in this movie. I knew what it was. I'm still bored. Well, you just broke your rule of I'm a hypocrite. Yeah. Well, I I'll have to watch that. I some people are telling me to watch it, but just from it looks it looks intense. You should watch Obsession first. Obsession is infinitely better. Oh yes, I'm waiting for that to come out on streaming so I can watch it. You have to watch it. I can wait. Like it was made for you.

unknown 35:40

Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:41

I I'm really going out on an old here saying that it was made for you, but you know me pretty well, so I'm I'm sure you're right. I want to say one one more thing. Okay. I want to say the upside. So this this whole conversation has been, you know, mostly us complaining about what is already out there. But there is like a growing trend of what they call yapping, which is okay, it is what we do, you know. And uh, but I do think it's good for authors because essentially what you have been looking for, like you have been trying to transition between books, you're finding it difficult, and you're listening to different writing advice. And sure, like, and and you're saying that's kind of like taking away from your voice, it's making you question yourself. But what are you actually looking for? I think you're just looking for writing themed content that is comforting on some level. You're looking for camaraderie, and you can't always pester your friends and be like, hey, I okay, I bet you're not writing right now. I bet you're not working right now. Do you want to comfort me? Like you, you, you need some sort of ambient comfort. And I think just hanging out with people online can be a good thing. Like there are plenty of podcasts where you know people aren't necessarily giving life advice constantly throughout the podcast. They're yapping, you know? Yeah. They're just talking and having a nice time and including you in their space for for an hour or so. And I think that that is a completely fine space to indulge in, especially if you're experiencing uh writer's block or, you know, just just wanting to get yourself enthusiastic about writing. Because that's what I that's what I would do. When I went on YouTube looking for videos, I wanted to get myself enthusiastic about writing. Yeah, I think you're right. And that's what I like about what we do is that this is basically how we hang out. I mean, we talk about these things and discuss these things, talk about our life, we talk about our writing journeys. This is us in real life just recorded with some with a little bit of planning involved so we don't get too off topic. Uh but yeah, that's that's what I want is I just want to see what what's your current word count? Where are you in your draft? What's your next plan? Are you gonna query? Do you have an agent? Are you on sub and are you suffering? Yeah, I just want to see your life and how you're going as a writer, just so I can feel like we're in it together. And I don't want you to try and clickbait me with fear-based posts. Exactly. And I don't want you to box me in with those fear-based posts and make me feel like what I'm doing is is wrong or paranoid that I'm secretly doing it and I didn't catch it.

SPEAKER_00 38:22

You know?

SPEAKER_03 38:23

Yeah. That's that's another that's another side of it. That's just like you could be leaving out like you could be following all of those rules that they give you, but you're still left with the worry of am I did I miss something? And I actually don't think that that's I totally agree. Yeah, exactly. I think I think that it just cultivates the page fight, you know. I love that. Love that tie-in there. Thank you. So anyway, that's why you should watch our show. Be our friends. Yes, yes. So let's move on to throwing a tomato. So I wanted, you know, I like to keep on theme. So I picked one of an author writing a bad review of another author and just seeing how it lands with us. But this review was written in 1898 by Mark Twain, and they didn't have good reads, so he wrote this in a letter. So that's what I'm talking about. That's what I'm talking about. I'm certain like creatives are catty. Yeah. And very famous ones, especially so. Yes. So this is Mark Twain on Pride and Prejudice, and he wrote this in a letter to a friend. She was already dead in 1898. I haven't I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader, and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice. Like, why is he reading it so many times? Every time I read Pride and Prejudice, I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin bone. You know what? He was just saying that to be provocative. That's that's all. No, because there's more, like there's like more of reviews that he wrote in letters continually about Jane Austen. I mean, oh so okay, he can actually hate her, but what I'm saying is he's he's going hard, and I don't think that there's reason for it. Maybe he wants to beat her over the head because he sees how much everyone else loves her, and he's just like, what am I missing? And he's driven mad by it. Classic male ego. Yeah. I mean, he's also a genius. It's so funny. I love it. Uh, he can say whatever he wants. I don't care. I just thought that was so funny to take the time to write that to someone in a letter. I just, that's hysterical to me. Yeah. And that he's read it so many times. He hates it so much, but he's like, every time I read it, like, I would love to know how many times he read it. I know. Me too. Uh that's some dedication to a book you dislike. Mm-hmm. Maybe he was lying. Maybe he loved it. Maybe he hated himself that he loved it so much, you know. Yes, exactly. He couldn't admit it. Yeah. You know what? We should just tell everybody that Mark Twain loves Jane Austen. Yeah, I bet I bet that he won't roll over in his grave for that. Anyway. He's being summoned to us right now, screaming at us.

unknown 41:28

Never.

SPEAKER_03 41:31

Well, I did not stay on theme. I just I picked a a review, but I think that the it has some merit to it. I think it's it's interesting. So uh I picked a review of Gillian Flynn's Sharp Objects. It's a book I really love. Very dark. I love a book. I love the show uh that came out that adapted it to the screen. And yeah, it's just I I love her as a writer. I just am a big fan. Um yeah, and this person just major disappointment. So they said, I am sad to say that this book was a major disappointment compared to Gillian Flynn's other two novels, Gone Girl and Dark Places, were both incredibly suspenseful and had you really connected to both main characters. What I appreciate most about her writing is that she has you convinced you know who the perpetrator is in both stories, only to surprise you again and again throughout the novels. However, I can't quite say the same for Sharp Objects. There were several things about it that I like that I disliked from the get-go. The beginning was extremely rushed, and I didn't feel like I knew the main character at all. The story was really dark and not in the way that her other two novels are. This story was dark in a way that made me sick to my stomach for a variety of reasons, most of which I can't share without giving the story away. The cutting issue was a little beyond. I also this this person was obviously not a, you know, girl in 2013 or something like that. Anyway, uh, the cutting issue was a little beyond. I also guessed who the killer was within the first few chapters because it was really easy to tell. So I essentially wasted my time reading the rest of the book. I would save my time and money to stick to her other novels personally. I really did not care much for the book at all, and it really does not compare to the others. I mean, I think that there are some reviews where I'm like, okay, this is a mix of your personal feelings, your personal interaction with the content, and with like what you think a book is meant to be. And I also kind of I picked it because like she she is a very established author. She has written multiple books that this person was clearly a fan of. And it's like it's kind of it kind of shows like even when you're successful, you're gonna let people that like you down. And it doesn't matter. You know, again, it doesn't matter. Like you could be dead for 50 years and one of the greatest writers ever says they hate your writing. Doesn't matter. That's that's actually kind of a huge honor if you're dead and a huge author is reading your work over and over again, tormenting themselves with it. Yes, yes. It's just gonna show you be yourself, be strongly yourself. And that's the that's the best way to be a creative, in my opinion. Yeah. Just don't be weak. Yeah. Don't be weak, you know? Just be strong. Exactly, exactly. Remember that for your Russian characters in the book. Oh, I will. I will. I I feel like you're very supportive to me, and it helps me to be more myself and to write these funny things. Your comments last night about my dialogue and stuff were cracking me up. So I can't wait to continue that. I like I yeah, I I mean your dialogue was cracking me up as well. So I just wanted to spread the joy, you know. No, I appreciate that. So I have a question for you. Yes. Who are we interviewing next week? We are interviewing Heather Francis. We she has her debut, Chase Me If You Can, coming out in the next week. She was on the New York Times, like top 30 books to read. Yeah, top 30 books to read in June. I've got a copy of this book a couple years ago, actually, when it was still on sub. It's so good, so witty and good writing, and she's such an amazing author, and I am so excited for us to interview her. Yes. Yeah, I I'm so excited too. I love a new up-and-coming romance author that is making like just she's clearly making a big splash, and uh I can't I can't wait to talk with her and pick her brain. Well, thank you so much for listening. Please like and subscribe and show your support. And we will see you back here next week. You just listened to Page Fright. Don't forget to like and subscribe and write to us at PageFrightcontact at gmail.com.