Feeling under the weather big time...

by David Castanho
12th May 2014

Hi writers,

I have been under the weather all this week after showing my work to a person I thought would love it, instead they shot my dream down in seconds using words like 'this really isin't great, honestly who would want to by this?' Now i'm left wondering if he really did have a point, but I dont know what I should do.... Give up or try again.

Replies

Hi, dont be upset by what you have experienced. I would like to ask if your 'friend' gave you any constructive criticism or just said it was bad. If he/she passed judgement and gave you nothing ,negative or positive , to work with how are able to improve your work? I dont believe anyone writes complete gobbledygook! Even if we don't enjoy someone's work , there are always elements to it that will be good. Perhaps next time give the person a draft and then some written questions so they can critique it with thought instead of bursting your ego!

Good luck and keep on writing!

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Anne Makin
12/05/2014

I too have had to learn the hard way, I always thought that an author wrote and that was it, their first draft was perfect, not so. I didn't think I would be able to write a decent piece until I learned that the first draft is exactly that the FIRST draft and has so much missing because we see the story in full in our head as we read our own piece, other people see what's written! Don't give up and don't destroy what you have worked on. you need to read it aloud and rewrite and rewrite over and over, continually editing. You will lose a lot of text as you become more familiar with your written word and you will see the changes yourself, keep your original and you will see over time how it has changed and developed, it's work and time and the hardest thing to do sometimes is remove a passage that you feel is brilliant but it doesn't help the plot and so has to go. I think the idea so far is good but yes it needs loads of work.

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Paul Garside
12/05/2014

You should never EVER give up! You know how many publishers did j k Rowling ran into? 13 (or more...) and the first ones sayd that her idea was never going to be on the libraries.

You have to keep the dream! It's the dreams that make our lives better!

If that person said that, it doesn't matter. Keep the head up and keep trying! :)

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Tiago Silva
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