Harper’s Harpings – It’s all been written before

I have been torturing myself this week by reading reviews. All kinds of reviews for books in my genre. Its awful out there, I have to say. A much-loved author has had a tough time with reviews and I feel for her, I hope she doesn’t read them.

I haven’t sauntered down the path of writing for readers, I’ve always been rather selfish and written my story and not worry if it’s liked. However, I am not naive enough to think that there could be backlash, should people not like them.

A trend I am seeing at the moment are reviews that don’t actually review the book. Instead there is a whole barrage of ‘I loved it’ and they don’t tell you why or ‘I hated it’ and they put that there are criticizing that they have seen a scene before, in Pretty Woman or Meet Joe Black or similar love story.

Everything has been written before or filmed before. That’s a fact, not a review.

To be criticized for putting a picnic scene in a book because it was in Pretty Woman is harsh in my opinion. I have a picnic scene in a book being released in January AND it has a helicopter too. Will there be fingers pointed?

If I think about all the rom-coms I have seen, pretty much everything is off-limits to me if I want to write about love or lust. Let’s take Pretty Woman. Items I can’t use if we take this reviewer’s rules:

Suits, business men, limousine, polo, fast cars, hotel suites, champagne, strawberries, wigs, thigh high boots, ex wives, punch in the face, piano……. I could go on couldn’t I? If I hadn’t already bored myself.

How can you be original? For me it is to keep writing what I want to write. My other tip is I don’t read my own genre so I don’t have to stress is someone has already written it. I haven’t been able to read my own subject matter for pleasure for years. I mainly read thrillers and crime novels. That was until recently when I read a friend’s story.

Reviewer’s have said that they have read it all before and there isn’t very much coming out that is original. I hope that’s not true, my friend’s story is cleverly written, with a simple theme that keeps you wanting to read more. Isn’t that what you want in a book?

It is a tough world, writing, to be original.

What are your thoughts?

Thanks for reading

Grace

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Harper’s Motto: You will not be everybody’s favourite flavour, but that’s ok, because they will not always be your favourite flavour.   Be who you want to be and you will attract the people who will support you no matter what.

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