There are a few things that I struggle with on a daily basis. As a person and as a writer.
The first thing is that I am a perfectionist. I drive myself crazy because I'm such a perfectionist. When I was in high school, I used to cry when I got anything less than an A. When someone criticized me, I took it to heart and did everything that I could to be better. I was a bully's fantasy.
And then I stopped caring so much. More about things that didn't matter (appearance, fashion, money, etc.) But this plague of perfectionism has never quite been cured, and I can see that most of all in my writing. FURY for example, is my downfall in perfectionism. Because no matter how hard I try or how many revisions it goes through, it's still not perfect. And it frustrates the heck out of me. But worse, like a little kid with a scab, I pick at it and pick at it until it's a bleeding mess. And the more it bleeds, the more I pick. Yuck.
My perfectionism binge tends to really kick in when someone is critiquing my work. I want everyone to just rave about how wonderful and brilliant and perfect it is. (Ok, we all want that.) And when someone has a nitpick, I track it down and see if I can fix it. Which, at times, can inhibit my work more than help it. I will fixate on that one problem and refuse to move on until I can make it better. Which means NO NEW WRITING.
Argh.
This isn't the fault of the critiquer. Not at all. It's just me and something I constantly have to overcome. And I really don't want someone to gloss over problem areas in my work for fear that I will do this... It's just an aggravation for me. I usually have to take a break from the work and just go do something else for a while. (I drew a picture of Achlys today, instead of writing on ONE THOUSAND.) Bad thing is, however, that I'm still not refocused enough to move on.
Double ARGH.
But ONE THOUSAND is fantastic! I'm not exaggerating. I really love that story and strongly disagree with some of the negative critiques you've received regarding tone shift and the like. I would go as far as to say that it's already very good as is with already written parts good enough to be on a bookshelf. Please just keep writing it so I can know what happens next. ^^
ReplyDeleteI think your writing is in the Top Five best writing in the forum. I also think that no matter what we do, maybe it will never be "perfect" but it can come very close. I think you are great. Get it as good as you possibly can, and be prepared because once an agent accepts your work, you're going to have to go through it and somehow edit more anyway!!!!
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