Hi Bernard,
I’ve just read a previous post sent in by another fan regarding an author’s characters, their choices and behaviour. I’m in agreement with you that an author shouldn’t be made to feel they’ve made a mistake when portraying their characters. There is certainly room for advice from experienced authors to potential writers on various points when creating and presenting a short story or novel. And any new writer worth their salt would welcome such constructive criticism instead of bristling with indignation. But fan feedback differs somewhat, it often balances on personal preference as opposed to an established method – very similar to market researchers in a market place verifying a particular cake-sample to the public: one person says, ‘oh yes, the cinnamon adds that extra touch’ while another grimaces, ‘no, too much cinnamon for me!’ and a third shrugs, ‘hmm, okay, but you might have overdone it on the icing’. Overall, there’s too varied an opinion! Indeed (and this is referring to another form of entertainment), when fans and friends of developer Ion Storm criticized certain aspects of Deus Ex – one of the best video games ever made in my opinion – as a result the sequel ‘Invisible War’ turned out to be a disappointment in comparison. Interestingly, amongst other issues, it lacked three-dimensional, memorable characters. The original was far superior to its sequel. In all fairness, the sequel did possess some interesting points and fared average for many fans, but ultimately fell painfully short partially due to customer feedback (there were other reasons such as bad team chemistry, choice of engine, complications whilst catering to both PC and console version, etc). However, I believe the developers swore never to allow such feedback to influence their game production, ever again. Although Ion Storm closed it doors, the personnel carried such sentiments with them upon joining other companies or going into business for themselves. I think the same lesson applies to authors. And you’re quite right: if a reader dislikes or disagrees with something an author has written, they’re quite welcome to choose another author. Their choice!
Robert Douglas