(no subject)

[owlectomy]

Critique (whether I'm critiquing or being critiqued) makes me feel like writing really isn't something you can learn or teach--or else, that I'm really bad at putting my thoughts into words and should just give up now. I don't want to be the one to whine, "You don't understaaaaand my genius!" because I hold to the school of thought that if you can't make yourself understood, it's not so much genius.

I think, maybe, that there are some things that the author won't see no matter how many times they get pointed out, because the author isn't at that level yet. And that goes for me, too. There are a few things where I'll grumble and say, "Yeah, you're right," and a few things where I'll say "Why didn't I realize that before?"... and a few things where I'll say, "You don't understand my genius!" and I just can't budge. And maybe I'm right, and maybe I'm wrong, but as long as I can't see WHY, it won't do me any good to mechanically implement someone else's suggestions.

Which makes it all a bit frustrating. I can only hope that a round of novel submissions will give me some indication of whether I'm moving forward at all. My intuitions say that it's good, but how reliable are intuitions, anyway?

Comments

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

You're right, of course; but when one's setting out to write commercial fiction, there's not that much difference in practice between writing badly and writing something that isn't to many people's taste.

If necessary, I'll eventually accept that my tastes are kind of obscure; for now I can labor in the delusion that the only thing stopping me from getting published is a slight improvement in skill...I really envy those who can write without the slightest bit of profit motive.