skzb - I found your comment quite useful and hope my other readers do as well. Thank you!

Finding quality First Readers is probably another blog entry idea, now that I think about it…

Sken - So far I’m pretty pleased with myself that I’m not having problems with actual rejections and taking those personally; I seem to be succeeding in most of my attempts to build a self-healthy writer foundation. You raise a good point for people to consider, in that someone who seems to fundamentally miss what one considers to be major important story pieces is probably not the best choice for a line editor for one’s work. However, depending on the specifics of the situation, that person might still have useful advice or contributions at certain points in the process (such as copyediting or final reading). Knowing whether that will work depends largely on knowing the thickness of one’s tender writer skin, which these sorts of experiences help toughen. *grin*

The only thing I feel like I can add is, “Dirreaha (sp?!) Principle”. Which is a short way to say, “It may not be me, the person blowing me off may have to go the bathroom REALLY BADLY.” (Or whatever it is distracting them.)

I’m impressed with your ability to put yourself out there, with your writing. That’s amazingly brave.

I’m much like Steve in this regard, that which reaction to a story really hurts depends on the story and what I was trying to do with it. Some aspects of any given book are pretty much unassailable to me — I might try to bring them more to the surface if a lot of readers don’t seem to get them, but it doesn’t hurt if they don’t because I just know that those aspects are in some way right. I’m very nervous and paranoid about other aspects, and any slightest criticism of those tends to send me into a panic and then a complete slump. Certain ways of expressing reservation, dislike, or dissent also make me completely dismiss the speaker, while others make me pay very close attention.

As for this story, you can either put it away until those nagging bits that you think want changing make themselves clearer, or send it out and see if it strikes somebody’s fancy even in what seems like an imperfect state. There’s no guarantee, regardless of what you do, that in six months or ten years, somebody won’t point out a terrible flaw in the story. But since other people will point out beauties you never saw, with luck it evens out.

The only even slightly comforting thing I’ve found for all these vagaries is to have several things to work on, so that it’s not so crushing if one story doesn’t find the reactions I want.

P.

That may all be too vague to be useful.