On poetic licence and stuff like that...

[wiseheart]

I sent the first chapter of a planned story to someone who I know generally likes what I do to have a first opinion. They sent it back with a lot of what was clearly ment to be helpful suggestions. Only that they would have changed the whole direction of the plot, the characterizations, and the basic aim of the story.

In my reply, I thanked them for their effort and explained that while I appreciate the amount of work they put into making those suggestions, they are just not compatible with what I had in mind when I started. Unfortunately, I doubt that I'd be able to continue the story in the direction I've originally planned, either. It seems that I no longer believe in it.

Perhaps I get discouraged too easily. I've got this reaction earlier - people wanting to read a completely different story than the one I was actually writing - and it usually killed the story itself for years, if not permanently. I don't know why. It's not so that I'd start second-guessing my own concept; I'm not. And yet whenever such a reaction comes, especially when it comes from someone who seemed to like my writing, the story just dies on me.

Perhaps I should stop asking people's opinion altogether and just go on doing what feels right to me. OTOH, I'm not omniscient, and I need feedback to see if the things I had in mind actually gets over to the reader. I don't know. I'm just a bit depressed over the dead of another promising plotbunny - and one that was supposed to be the pilot of an entire series, at that. :(

Comments

[aviv-b.livejournal.com]

This is why I don't show stuff to anyone until its done. I occasionally bounce an idea off a reader friend - but that's about it. I have a Beta with a light touch - spelling, grammar or awkward sentences gets fixed with perhaps a mention of something that wasn't clear or something they felt needed fleshing out, but never, never about the plot itself. I would have the same problem you do - it wouldn't feel like it was my work anymore.

[wiseheart.livejournal.com]

Exactly! The reason why I sent it to this friend was because it was inspired by an idea of theirs, but it was clear from the beginning that it was going into a different direction. Ah, well...

I'd love a beta with a light touch - as I'm not a native speaker, I'll never completely certain about English grammar, which is more confusing than the timeline in the Whoniverse, and *that* is saying a lot. But people just don't seem to be able to deal with my writing. Some of my Torchwood stories, like "Atlantis Café", have been abandoned by four (!) beta readers already. They volunteered, then either dropped off the face of Earth after one chapter, or I never heard of them again at all. I've made similar experiences in other fandoms. Seems I have bad luck with betas.

I wouldn't be bothered by posting stuff un-betaed if I didn't get picked b/c of my grammar repeatedly. The even more annyoing fact is that a lot of poorly written, mediocre crap produced by native speakers is a lot worse grammatically, even with betas, and they never got bothered because of it. Life is unjust, and right now, I feel terribly sorry for myself. ;))