Self-Defeating Attitudes

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quicklime

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Agent Lucienne Diver has an excellent blog post today about three self-defeating attitudes she sees in writers. All three of them are things we see crop up time-and-again in thread discussions here, so I thought y'all might find it interesting reading.

Pay close attention to #1.


and 2.

and 3.


interesting read though, and I've seen plenty of all three, in much less time than you've been here....I've always thought the biggest obstacle to getting published for a great many would-be writers is themselves. :-(
 

shadowwalker

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I've seen many variations of #3 in my beta groups. I keep telling people - if you have to explain outside the story you're missing something in the story.
 

IceCreamEmpress

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That's an excellent post.

A subset of #3 is "But it really happened that way!" There's a reason they say "truth is stranger than fiction" and that is because fiction has to make sense--truth operates under no such constraints.
 

Phaeal

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Just so we can keep score easily:

1 = But Superstar Bestselling Author does it!
2 = My work is perfect as is ("camera-ready").
3 = You don't get it.
 

backslashbaby

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That is a great article. Thank you.

I thought I was doing #3, and still have to ask around about that, but it turns out I don't usually write for a wide audience. There is a smaller audience that does get it without anything but the story. I might have to tell them a genre hint or two, but that makes sense.

So I'd caution folks not to take just the first crit or two on that one, you know? Ask a wide audience to read it.
 

mccardey

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Can I quote from her post? (Let me know if I can't, and I'll paraphrase...)

If you want to write for publication and not just to please yourself, you’re going to have to learn how to play well with others.

This. It sounds so simple, but, god, sometimes people will shoot themselves in the foot. In the feet. Both feet.
 

Jamesaritchie

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Good article, though I believe another ten or twelve equally self-defeating attitudes could be added with no trouble at all.
 

mscelina

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shaldna

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I've seen many variations of #3 in my beta groups. I keep telling people - if you have to explain outside the story you're missing something in the story.

Agreed.
 

seun

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A lot of people need to print number one and put it somewhere they'll see it whenever they write.
 
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Phaeal

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Actually, #3, You Don't Get It, is often true. Agents and editors and readers aren't going to "get" every story, even those that are well-written and do exactly what they set out to do.

The thing is, "You don't get it" is a useless complaint. Because an agent or editor who doesn't "get" your work isn't going to be a good advocate for it no matter how much you rant and rail about the injustice and low mentality of the world. If people don't get you because you have more work to do, get back to work. If they don't get you because, yes, this really is a case of something that different or specialized, keep looking for the one who understands, the niche that responds, but stop whining. That ain't going to help.
 

Jamesaritchie

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If one person doesn't get it, it may be his fault. If several people don't get it , you wrote it wrong.
 

backslashbaby

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Actually, #3, You Don't Get It, is often true. Agents and editors and readers aren't going to "get" every story, even those that are well-written and do exactly what they set out to do.

The thing is, "You don't get it" is a useless complaint. Because an agent or editor who doesn't "get" your work isn't going to be a good advocate for it no matter how much you rant and rail about the injustice and low mentality of the world. If people don't get you because you have more work to do, get back to work. If they don't get you because, yes, this really is a case of something that different or specialized, keep looking for the one who understands, the niche that responds, but stop whining. That ain't going to help.

QFT
 

Susan Coffin

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Agent Lucienne Diver has an excellent blog post today about three self-defeating attitudes she sees in writers. All three of them are things we see crop up time-and-again in thread discussions here, so I thought y'all might find it interesting reading.

Pay close attention to #1.

Once again, Lucienne has posted an excellent article. I love her blog. She is so honest about the business.
 
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