The thing is

[ksmith]

...even though I knew the wip needed work, and in many of the places that Editor pointed out--this is a 5-page letter, single-spaced--I still need to adjust to the facts that the letter is indeed here and the wip is not perfect. I knew it wasn't perfect, but I was, of course, willing to be proved wrong. No such luck for five previous books. No such luck now. Time to dig the tool box out from under the bed.

They say that it takes ten good reviews to counteract one bad one. Well, a revision letter, no matter how encouraging it is in places, is a bad review. Granted, it is a bad review of the constructive sort, a bad review that no one else need ever read. The issues it points out should be repaired, never to see the light of day. For the most part. There may be some room for discussion here or there...

Not asking for sympathy or pats on the back. It's just something I need to work through before I settle down to work. The realization that I still have miles to go before this book sleeps.

Comments

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I just wish I was better at getting it right the first time.

Well, I'm in for a frigid weekend, with wind chills well below zero. I'll likely be building fires in the evenings--they always make things comfortable. Much thinking to do.

[e-moon60.livejournal.com]

Don't we all!

I don't *intend* to turn in a flawed book. I work and work and work on it, and if hours alone and effort alone could do it, the thing would be spotless, shiny, perfect. Alpha readers have gone over it as well.

Then my agent and my editor tell me what's wrong with it and I want to curl up and die. I'm already sick of the thing--I want to do something else--I don't want to have to go back into that now-obviously-horrible story yet again and try to shuffle and shift and push and prod it into something halfway decent.

But that's apparently what's going to happen with every single book of mine, so I have to be prepared, go down that nasty dark hole one more time.

I don't think editor have any idea how painful and nasty and disgusting it can be.

E.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

It's demoralizing. How can I call myself a storyteller if I can't construct a story without help? Shouldn't I be able to manage it on my own? What's wrong with my story judgment? Why can't I tell whether or not something works?

Dammit, I should know how to do this.

It seems that February will be fraught and full of incident.

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

*snort* That's exactly how I (and as far as I can tell practically everybody) feels. It's not that we can't tell stories. It's that we're too close to see the flaws. And we all feel like morons for not seeing what was OBVIOUSLY SCREAMINGLY APPARENT, which is made worse by the fact that as soon as somebody else points it out it *becomes* obviously screamingly apparent.

I go through exactly the same thing every time I get a revision letter. And what I hate most of all is that in almost every instance, my editor/agent is *right*. Grrrrr. :)

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I go through exactly the same thing every time I get a revision letter. And what I hate most of all is that in almost every instance, my editor/agent is *right*. Grrrrr. :)

Yeah. Those parts that I felt probably needed work, but might slip by--they didn't slip by. The storyline I snipped off in the middle--didn't tuck that dangly end away as well as I thought I had. It is a rare issue that my editor discusses that I haven't pondered at some point. Dammit.