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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]No, her friends are not “dicks.” Writing is an art and not everyone is good at writing—not everyone can pull off a good novel.

If I took it upon myself to create paintings in the style of Monet, I could get all the expensive tools and pour my soul into it and work very hard at it, but that doesn’t mean the result would be worthy of hanging on someone’s wall. My friends could applaud the effort and the time I spent on it, but if they told me it was beautiful, it would be a lie.

At least with a novel, they can read it, mutter some compliments, and move on. With crafts or cooking, friends can get stuck with awful “art” in more permanent or harmful ways.  I have a friend who likes to make jewelry. It’s ugly. [/quote]

Yes, her friends are d*cks. It's not their job to be literary critics. It's their job to be supportive of and excited for the friend. That is normal. It's not normal to decide that sure this big publisher thought the book was great bit you know better nad you're going to tell your friend that her book actually stinks.

Writers have enough inner voices - and, frankly, enough outer voices - telling them they're frauds, they're no good, etc. Just look at Goodreads sometime if you want to really feel awful about your work. Friends should just cheer you on. They don't have to be one-person publicity machines who goes around telling everyone they know to buy your book - though it's nice if they do. But yeah, the last thing they should be doing is telling a writer that their already published book is full of plot holes. There is just not one single useful thing that comes out of doing that/

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Also, what a strange comparison - who cares if you paint in the style of Monet. If you do I hope you enjoy it and it comes out well. But let's say that a museum puts up an exhibition of your paintings. Your friends' job would be to come and say that they are proud of you - it's not to come and remark how your paintings stink, and the exhibition is incoherent. What would even be the point of that?

OP isn't asking her friends to tattoo her novel onto their backs. Just to say, "You did great! Your novel is out! It's so exciting!" Really good friends would leave a good review on Amazon and Goodreads, regardless of what they actually think. But even the most mediocre friend shouldn't go and leave a BAD review, or give that bad review to OP. It's not constructive, it's sh**ty.

The friends displaying inadequate enthusiasm, as opposed to saying they hated it, is slightly different. It's still not nice but I think most people don't really understand how hard it is to write a book and get it published. They may think their kid's school play is just as big an accomplishment or something.

OP - I wonder how much of this is you projecting your inner critic onto your friends, too. Did your friends actually say that the book has plot holes, or are you just sitting here, post-publication, thinking about all the plot holes you wish you and your editor had caught and fixed? [/quote]

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