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| Image credit: Peter Mazurek |
It's weird for me to write two blog posts in one day since I usually post seldom and sporadically, but receiving constructive criticism for The Newfangled World has got me thinking about the struggles artists have between being true to themselves and making a living. That sounds really cheesy to me, but let me explain what I'm talking about. The main reason I submitted my story to Leading Edge wasn't to get published, although that would've been great, of course. The main reason was because I'm not satisfied with the story, and I was hoping they could help me make it better. Oddly, even though it was intimidating for me to write the story in the first place, it's much, much more intimidating to me to figure out how to go back and make it better. Unfortunately, the criticism I received doesn't seem very helpful. Maybe I'm just too connected to more story, maybe it's too personal, but their suggestions seemed, for the most part, kind of out there. I'll have to read it over again, but the characterization of Malcolm Lee as an egoist seems so weird to me. The main criticism I understand is the scene with Malcolm's family. I'm very torn about that scene because it does seem out of place and break up the story, but overall, I feel like it's important to have a scene to establish Malcolm's love for his family. So I may end up changing it, but I do want to keep a scene with his family.
One of the big problems I run into is that I care more about how I feel about my creations than I care about how other people feel about them. Yeah, it's great when other people seem to like them, and I love that, but whether or not I like what I make is more important to me. That's a bad attitude for anyone who wants to share what they create.
