I will not read your %$#@! script
My great friend playwright Linda C. Carson sent me this link to an article by John Olson in The Village Voice. Given that I get asked almost every day to read someone else's manuscript, all I can say is that Olson has nailed it exactly: it's a terrible imposition and a no-win situation.
[Update: and listen to Harlan Ellison read a poem inspired by this here.]
Visit The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
and WakeWatchWonder.com
Posted by Rob on Saturday, September 12, 2009
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5 Comments:
And see this comment from my friend (and collaborator on the book Boarding the Enterprise) David Gerrold: Gerrold response.
Not even mine?(sniffling) I guess it's just as well that I never wrote one.
I'm not sure axe-murdering someone's laptop and burning down their home is a proper response (for a first offender).
And speaking of Gerrold, reading his "Worlds of Wonder: How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy" will get you a much nicer response than asking him to read your work.
Both articles were excellent, and Gerrold's was downright scary.
I like getting my critiques from slush pile editors, they don't pull punches.
I think every profession has some version of this. I used to get asked a lot to help people with computer or programming problems. Doctors/ nurses get no end of health questions, and so on.
The frightening difference is how personally I suspect writers take it.
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