Yeah, but because your reasoning is sound.

Thank you.

you don't need to be sorry, unless you caused all this in the first place.

I didn't touch it, I was nowhere near the place.

Insent to betas...and I'm getting on my plane. Thanks all!

I was really tempted to do a Thanksgiving-themed drabble challenge this week (like "succotash," or perhaps "smallpox-laden blankets"). But then I thought nah, succotash isn't all that interesting.

So. Challenge #32 (breath) is now closed.

This week's challenge (#33) is the passage of time. I know it's really broad and vague, but it intrigues me. Please let me know if you want more specific topics, because we can always do succotash....

Lament

Can someone please tell me: when does the wound close?

When does the scar form? Or has it formed, a hundred times over? Have I picked at it, pulling at the edges until it oozes tiny pain-glecked globules of memory and hurt and joy, leaving snail tracks down heart and soul?

How many days have to go by, get entered in my personal ledgers of loss and attainment, reach some sort of critical mass where days become weeks and months and the passage of time no longer matters to me, because I'm sure and whole again?

When do I heal?

I got feedback from my old friend who had no idea what I've been up to, re: fandom all these years.

It was good. I am so relieved, as my big fear was that anyone outside my immediate fandom circle would be like, "um, this is confusing and stupid."

Her favorite was the Minear story, followed by ita's story.

Those are my faves as well.

I'm just so relieved. I was worried.

Oh, Allyson, that's great! I love it that her favorites were your favorites - it shows that you judge your work with "open eyes", in the lack of a better expression (also, now I wish I read the ita story).

That's wonderful, Allyson.

I've been thinking over the criticism from that agent off and on, along with all the widely divergent feedback I've gotten from the various contests I've entered and other agents and editors who've seen Lucy in one form or another. I know it's not surprising to get a variety of opinions--I mean, it's really no different from how we argue over various authors' merits in the literary thread. Still, I'm confused. In particular, I don't know what to make of being told that my writing "isn't strong." She's the second person to have that reaction, but I've also had equally expert readers say the opposite--one will say, "charming concept, but your writing isn't strong enough to make it stand out," while another says, "your writing is very strong, but the concept isn't unique enough for this tight market."

So my question is what to do with that particular bit of vague but painful criticism. I'm starting to wonder if I've deluded myself that I have any kind of exceptional talent. I mean, I think I have a nice, smooth prose voice as long as I edit carefully to rein in my tendency to be too verbose. I also think I'm brilliant at dialogue. I need to work on sensory details and action scenes, but I still think I'm pretty darn good at this. But "your writing isn't strong" sounds perilously close to "you have no talent for this, so you might as well go be an administrative assistant again."

My guess--and it is a guess, nothing more--about your writing not being "strong" is that your authorial voice isn't strong enough to be recognised in a genre full of similar stories--always remembering that the similar stories remark is my observation from a POV outside the genre. People read genre because they are familiar with and find comfort in a certain set of expectations about story, plot, and outcome. Within that genre, however, an author needs to be recognisable, if one reads a paragraph or a page, and distinguishable from other writers in the same genre.

It's just an observation, take it for what it might be worth. I don't think the comment "your writing isn't strong" means you have no talent, or even no gift for writing. It simply means, to me, that you may not have found your authorial voice yet.

Hmm. That makes sense. And I guess all that leaves for me to do is keep writing, since as far as I've ever heard, you can't force voice--it just has to evolve as you develop as a writer. Too, it's a lot more subjective than pacing or POV or any of the other usual new author flaws, which would go a long way toward explaing the wildly divergent reader reactions I've been getting.

Her favorite was the Minear story, followed by ita's story.

The Minear story is pretty wonderful. I haven't read ita's story. And I'm still anxiously waiting for the finished "Save Firefly," cause hell, if what I read was only a first draft, you're in wicked good shape.