Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Writer Problems: Not Trusting yourself


I will admit it, I don't trust myself at all.  Especially when it comes to project I've been trying to query. 

Just when I think it's perfect, it gets rejected-- that's cool.  Believe me this post isn't about rejection, it's about confusion.

Here's teh thing, every time it's rejected, it's for totally different reasons.  So every time I'm rejected I look at the feedback, read through it, mull it over in my brain and think, "yep that sounds about right."
Then I fix the problem... I send it off to again to a different agent and BOOM I'm rejected again for a TOTALLY DIFFERENT REASON.

I've done so many tweeks and changes, that I can't figure out what's right and what's wrong. 

And here's the thing, I totally 100% thankful EVERY piece of feedback I've gotten.  My feedback has been WONDERFUL.  It's just it's all different.  It feels like I'm getting shut at by an machine gun and not a sniper rifle. 

So now I don't trust myself.  I don't know which way is up.  I only know this--- At it's core... I've got an AWESOME book, it's just the details I keep screwing up.

At this point I know perfection is out of my reach...but trying should be.

I have no solutions to this problem.

Maybe walking away for a little while and coming back to it is something.  And the advice trusting yourself is easier said than done.

What about you? Does anyone else have this problem?

2 comments:

  1. Erinn,

    Go with your gut feeling. It must be very frustrating to get different crits from each agent.

    You are SO right though, to get ANY feedback at all is a miracle, so you OBVIOUSLY are on to something. My suggestion is to perhaps run it by an editor who is not familiar with your work and see if they have any suggestions. It would totally be worth whatever fee to have some peace of mind.

    DON'T GIVE UP!

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