Invaluable Feedback
Today I got feedback on something I wrote a long time ago.
I’ve known this whole time that it wasn’t ready for submission or publication yet, I was still way too close to it, but a friend encouraged me to submit it anyway.
I’m glad I did.

She didn’t accept it for publication, but she read it, and she gave me notes and edits (i.e. cuts) that I wouldn’t have, in a million years (no matter how far away I got from it), seen or made myself.
Then she told me: “Revise this. Submit it again without fear… it does belong in the submission boxes of lit magazines. You’re 1000% in the right place.”
I expected edits. I expected criticism. I expected those critical notes to be bookended with ones of kindness and encouragement, because that’s something I learned to do as a writing tutor.
But that comment I did not expect, and it felt really good.
