Last night I had a most humbling and somewhat depressing experience. I had spent the morning with my critiquing buddy going over some of my picture book stories. One of them, my friend offered to rewrite and e-mail to me later in the day.
This I received in the evening. The whole thing had been pretty well rewritten with just the basic concepts left intact, so it was quite different to the original. Despite my friends hard work, I still much preferred my own version and decided to show my husband the two. I realised he had no recollection of the original story so on a whim I didn't tell him which was which. This was so my ego could experience the gratification of his liking mine better which was obviously going to happen. I am sure you can tell what happened next- yes, he preferred my buddy's and thought it was mine! So I was twice devastated- one that mine wasn't perceived clearly as the better and secondly that he couldn't tell by the style which was mine.
Upon reflection (after a small sulk) I guess there was a lot to learn from that. Some of which is: 1.Your ego is not your friend. 2. Just because it's your brilliant idea doesn't mean you wrote it well.3.If you ask for help, you'll probably get it so be prepared for changes!
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