I can't write this without sounding like a jackhole.

Goddamn it, essay. Be funny.

Allyson go all out jackhole. Let your jackhole flag fly. You can always pull back on edit.

Allyson, whenever I've had my students write about themselves, at least half of them are convinced that they must sound like jackholes.

And then I had pie.

Oooh. Pie. What kind of pie?

What Aurelia Said. Tell the truth; it will be a refreshing change for the reader. (Not that you usually lie, but that many memoirists are at pains to put their best, possibly imaginarily best, shoes forward.)

I can't write this without sounding like a jackhole.

Allyson, can you write it the way you see it, and then let a later read (or beta readers or whatever works for you) shine light on the problematic places?

I'm no writer, but even when trying to phrase something to say in face-space, what may sound bad in my head turns out to be actually OK (and some problems occur that sounded completely OK before pronounced out loud). Also, more often than not, we judge ourselves in different eyes than other use to judge us (much in the same way in which we don't really look to other people the way we appear in the mirror).

[Edit: or, what everybody else had already said, only they were shorter.]

What Aurelia Said. Tell the truth; it will be a refreshing change for the reader. (Not that you usually lie, but that many memoirists are at pains to put their best, possibly imaginarily best, shoes forward.)

Nah. I'm okay with admitting my crappy qualities, mostly. In this, I have to talk about my positive qualities a tiny bit, and I have so little experience with that.

I'm also still smarting from the anonymous answers in my LJ, which were helpful and honest, but...

I don't even know what happens after the but...

This really doesn't belong in Minearverse. It has nothing to do with crafts and soaps.

I unilaterally renamed it Allysonverse when you sold the book. It's all about you now.

An easy trap to fall into is believing your bad reviews more than you believe your good reviews. Don't do it. The anonymous stuff in your blog wasn't, by and large, helpful: it was all "you think you're so special, but you're not."

Monique will treat it right. Good for her, taking it on.

Aw, thanks! I hope to do it justice. Or at least, not end up with him hating me.

It has nothing to do with crafts and soaps.

But does it have to do with gay cowboys? Cause isn't this the gaycowboy thread too?

speaking of which, has anyone downloaded the Willie Nelson recording of "Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)"?