Hi, TT. Yes, you are not alone. Consensus opinions usually deserve close listens. But there are so many people, so many tastes.
Twisted-I could have written your post. So many conflicting opinions on blogs. Do this don't do that, no prologues etc.......it drives me crazy.....BUT I've learned a tonne from various blogs about words to avoid, cliche's etc. Personally I like prologues and epilogues, I'm not sure why some are so against them. Congrats on finishing
S.Eli-Good advice on the NA. I'm not even sure if I'll end up with a YA. I'm teetering since it feels a little restrictive.
Oh thank goodness I'm not the only one! At first I took everyone's suggestions as absolute fact, then realized too many were conflicting. No wake up scenes.....but many successful books open with the MC waking. No prologues.....but many sci-fi/fantasy has prologues to engage the reader. No backstory.....but so many books provide backstory so the reader is familiar with the world, especially in UF. The whole thing made me question my entire novel (my fault, not blaming or complaining), so now it's sitting next to me all printed out with a red pen sitting on top. When I feel like I've kept the advice I like and discarded the rest I'll begin editing. But I won't let myself wait too long or it'll never get done - lol
And thank you @Jan74 - it felt really awesome to know I was as done as a first draft could be Don't get me wrong, it's riddled with errors, but every idea I wanted to put in the book is in the book, and that was the biggest hurdle. (I say that now, ask me again what the biggest hurdle is when I don't want to get rid of any words I wrote!)