After a year-and-a-half of writing, rewriting, and editing, I have finally sent my 90,000 word fantasy novel out to beta readers.
To what extend does a work change after coming back from critiques? I read my first email as far as a concern about too many characters being introduced in the first chapter. They also called it a page-turner, but my brain can't seem to unlatch from the easily-fixable concerns to appreciate that.
I'm looking up submission-calls and writing shorts while I wait, but I seem to have hit a block. Any time I'm minorly inconvenienced by a plot point, my inner monologue pipes up. I'm no good at this. No amount of practice will make me good. It's all been for nothing. I will never write anything readable, much less publishable.
I realize rejection and ego-blows are a part of the process, but I am unable to focus on anything to the point where it's impacting my life (yeah, I wasn't the most mentally healthy person to begin with).
I'm looking at one to two months of this... for the first round.
Does anyone have any tips of passing the time and keeping one's self-esteem high while waiting to be constructively pummelled?
To what extend does a work change after coming back from critiques? I read my first email as far as a concern about too many characters being introduced in the first chapter. They also called it a page-turner, but my brain can't seem to unlatch from the easily-fixable concerns to appreciate that.
I'm looking up submission-calls and writing shorts while I wait, but I seem to have hit a block. Any time I'm minorly inconvenienced by a plot point, my inner monologue pipes up. I'm no good at this. No amount of practice will make me good. It's all been for nothing. I will never write anything readable, much less publishable.
I realize rejection and ego-blows are a part of the process, but I am unable to focus on anything to the point where it's impacting my life (yeah, I wasn't the most mentally healthy person to begin with).
I'm looking at one to two months of this... for the first round.
Does anyone have any tips of passing the time and keeping one's self-esteem high while waiting to be constructively pummelled?