Sometimes we can see more clearly from a distance.
When my daughter was in her early twenties, she handed me a photo of twelve dashing young men. She contemplated dating one of them and asked me to pick “the one”.
“Him?” I pointed.
“No.”
“Him?”
“No.”
“Him?”
“Sigh. No.”
Finally there was only one guy left.
“Never mind.” She snatched the photo and marched to her room.
In hindsight, the young man she picked turned out to be a great catch, but not for my daughter. They just weren’t right for each other. Even in a photograph, my mother’s intuition told me he wasn’t “the one”. Luckily, they never dated. And she found her true love.
This is how it is with my writers’ groups. I can become enamored with weak characters, silly gags, lame story lines, and superfluous sentences, but my writing friends aren’t so blinded by infatuation. From a distance, they can see what’s not right for me and my story.
I wouldn’t trade my critique partners for anything. They will save me from settling for the wrong manuscript.
Now if they could just help me choose broccoli over chocolate.
Nice insights! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome. It won’t be long before your daughters will be handing you photographs of potential beaus.