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]

The thing is, there are two kinds of sympathy. There's the "there, there, dear--what do *they* know?" Images of a mother hen, wings spread, sheltering her poor dear while glaring at the awful person who dared criticize.

Then there's the corner-of-the-boxing-ring brand of sympathy. Waving towels and squirts of water in the face and "that was a low blow, but you can get 'em, Champ" while they drag you to your feet and push you to the center of the ring, where the keyboard awaits.

An hour of light nattering sounds wonderful. That's why I wish all the writers I knew lived within an hour's drive. Or that I could just open the wardrobe door and there they'd be.