Sometimes that’s what reviewing feels like, a repeating rehash of every previous review I’ve written. Like every story, I want something new. Something more. I want them individualized, unique. Special unto themselves.
Not possible, not really.
The hard truth is that some stories are a comfort read of average enjoyment. I’m sure some of my own fiction will be read in the same vein. There’s no other way to read and talk about them. Every so often you will come across a story that strikes you as more and others as not so much.
It’s easy to fall into the cookie-cutter trap of writing them all the same and I have found myself doing this, at times. It’s the basic style of my writing and voice. You can even read it here in my blog posts. Phrases I keep using. Sentences lengths. Big words or small words. Trying to be more than who I am…someone who just likes reading and stumbled into writing my opinion on what I’ve read.
And, authors, it is only my opinion.
Readers, it is only my opinion.
I still refuse to be negative in print. I will continue to try to be fair and look beyond what my personal tastes are and what my editor brain wants to say. There is a reader for every story. It’s not up to me to find that reader, but it is up to me not to toss anyone’s creative work away like yesterday’s trash.
If that means reusing words that sound too standard, too contrite, well, maybe it’s just my limited vocabulary. Maybe my lack of connection is drawing heavily on the blank which leads to falling back to the familiar. Either way, please remember I’m doing my best as honestly as I know how.