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I& #39;ve been fighting with one of my short stories for a few months now. I was never in love with it, though I liked the concept and felt that it improved with each edit. When I& #39;d revised it a few times on my own, I kicked it to on to a feedback group.
Response to it was pretty good - not resoundingly positive, but good and helpful, pointing out places that needed more clarity or more work.
Except for this one dude.
Except for this one dude.
This one dude left a comment that was unrelentingly negative. "I hate this." "This is stupid." "Is this meant to be a joke? I didn& #39;t laugh." "You& #39;re not interesting."
Not only nothing positive, but nothing constructive at all.
Not only nothing positive, but nothing constructive at all.
I reported him to the group moderator, who addressed the issue correctly, but months later I still hadn& #39;t edited the story again. Not only that, but I hadn& #39;t worked on anything else either. Each time, I felt I should fix this one first... but I couldn& #39;t bring myself to do it.
I& #39;ve found myself wondering if the story is worth trying to fix at all. I was never in love with this one. Should I even bother? But then it felt like binning the story was letting this guy win, and the thing is... It& #39;s not like I believed him.
I don& #39;t think it& #39;s a terrible story. I don& #39;t think he was right about it - and no one else who read it did either. But all my attempts to reconnect with the story after that experience just fell flat.