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.

Dear god. I'm actually going to try and publish.

Susan, the most recent criticism you posted says what she means by "not strong enough writing":

The story moved along too slowly, with too much repetition.

I haven't read anything but what you've posted in-thread, but -- do you think there's any possibility that's accurate? If so, the way to strengthen your writing (at least for that reader) would be to cut back on repetition and not say things more than once. (Heh. I crack me up.)

Could be. I think I picked up some bad habits from having my initial audience be a writers group that meets once a week to read passages about ten pages long. I realized on editing that I kept re-explaining backstory in a way that made sense for a readership that got the story in small chunks once a week, but NSM for someone sitting down to read a novel in the usual fashion. I thought I'd corrected it on edit, but maybe not completely.

You can't hurry voice. You can't force it. Some writers are born with it, some writers develop it, some don't ever develop it but manage to have very nice careers writing anyway. And what Bev says about why readers read a particular genre is something that ought to be embroidered on a sampler somewhere. It's one reason I'm glad I don't write strict genre.

Allyson, I'm not surprised the friend loved it. So did I.