I think I’m going to start a new occasional feature—Me on Monday.

I am, after all, fascinated with myself and I think everyone else should be, too.

The truth is, I go to church on Sunday and I gain great insights into who I am, and I’m still processing those insights on Monday. I find out on Sunday that I am proud and sinful and unfaithful. And these things affect my writing. But besides hearing from the pulpit that I fall short of the glory of God, there are also the great little snippets I pick up from the people I speak to after the service.

A few weeks ago it went like this:

Friend: I had to stop reading your book. I didn’t hate it. I just had relatives visiting and I’ve been so busy.

Me: No big deal. You do not have to explain. It would be helpful to me if you let me know which page you stopped on, though.

Friend: Oh, I haven’t stopped. I’m going to finish it. It’s just so hard to read on my little Blueberry screen. (Blackberry, Boysenberry, whatever)

Me: I have a hard copy in the car if you’d like.

Friend: That would be great.  I’m going to let my daughters read it. I really don’t hate the book. It’s just that I realize you wrote it for young girls and your heroine is young and will be attractive to girls. She’s stubborn and immature. I can see so much of you in her. She has that “Wah, wah, wah, I’m not going to listen to you because I know I’m right,” thing going on.

Me: Yes, we’re rather arrogant, we two.

I walk away, thinking…

..She thinks I’m arrogant and I won’t listen and I always think I’m right? Am I really that way?

Nah…She’s wrong.

OK, I’ll admit it. I am arrogant and self-centered. I think that’s part of the human condition post-fall. A very ugly part that I must struggle against daily.

And writers may have a double dose of arrogance. It takes a certain amount of self-confidence to let other people read what you’ve written in the first place. We writers have opinions we think are worthy of sharing. We believe what we have to say will be interesting and informative—if we didn’t, we wouldn’t put our stuff out for public consumption.

So, yes, writers are probably by nature more opinionated than some others.

And it’s good for us to listen to what other say about us, and to consider how they perceive us.

But I try to only consider the opinions of others after I’ve written. While I’m writing I try to  let my characters be who they want to be. The characters really are not me. They are acting without restraints I put on myself. They are acting in ways consistent with their own personalities and their personalities are far removed from my personality.

So I can’t think about possible future criticisms or real past criticisms when I’m writing. If I let my fears over my friends’ reactions color the way my characters live and move and have their beings, then I’m going to cripple the book, I think.

What about you? What kinds of funny or off-the-wall criticisms have you gotten, and how do you process them?