erika, I think you're panicking a little and that can lead to, maybe not overreacting, but worse-case-scenarioing? I mean, look at some of the shows you watch. They get into the nitty-gritty of street life, do you think all the writers have been cornerboys, if any of them? You can do it, too.

Cereal:

I'm finally doing it. Taking the first draft of the novel I finished about three years ago and going over it with an eye towards marketability. The revised opening is done, and t deep breath I'm asking if anyone would like to see it. t chants calming mantra "They're my friends, they're my friends, if they say it sucks it's not because they hate you"

Specifically, I'm wondering if it's a story that a reader would want to know more of, is the main character plausable, and later questions to follow depending on initial reactions.

So. t muzzling the Interior Critic who is screaming in terror Anyone want to see it?

Connie, I'd love to read it. Is that the only feedback you want, or specific line editing / typo catching stuff, too?

Maybe one or two. Mostly they arrested them or reported on them.

I'll read it, Connie.

Is that the only feedback you want, or specific line editing / typo catching stuff, too?

If you spot typos or glaring usage errors, please, let me know. I'm blind to such things for at least 12 hours after I write stuff. Profile addy?

AmyLiz and Hil, insent. No hurry, I just want to see if I'm on the write track with this opening.

edit: Damned Freudian homonyms. Right track.

Hell yeah, connie. Send it.

The only person my writing should really matter to is me.

And here you have tied directly into my deep discomfort with crit, whether on the level of teaching it, or getting paid to write it. I have absolutely no humility in me anywhere, so this isn't humble or faux-humble. It's pure puzzlement.

My opinion is mine, belonging to me, and if you want to hear it, I'll be glad to tell you. But value to anyone else but me? What the hell should it?

Anyone out there reading these words is presumably capable of reading and thinking and formulating their own take on stuff. So I get deeply uncomfortable with telling people not only why I feel one way about something, but far more uncomfortable about even considering telling them why they should think that.

I mean, go! Go go go! Go and read, or listen, or gaze, or stroke, or dance on your own, or whatever, but understand that the only thing I'm giving you, whether on your own stuff or anyone else's, is my opinion, mine, belonging to me.

Hopefully, those asking will find it useful. But if not? It aint the frickin' holy grail.

edited, to say it doesn't apply to people requesting feedback on the stuff they, themselves, have created. Different thing entirely.

I like knowing how other people take things, things I've consumed. It's why I'm here, after all, because I wanted to read other people's opinions on something I liked a great deal, to argue, be argued with, change my mind, learn angles, stick my ground.

Fuck the person who tells me what to feel. But I am curious about what they feel.

wrod. Writing is lonely, too.