Now for a bit of a fret...
Holy shit, I can't look at this article anymore. I've written and rewritten it for over a year, it's still not published and holy ever-loving fuck I can't believe the evisceration that I am finding on it after passing it on to my roommate. It's like all she said was, "This doesn't fit" or "This makes no sense." I'm experienced at this sort of thing--I've been critiqued as a writer since...always. But I find it very hard to believe that I could write something so bad and not see the badness. It's agonizing because I want to publish it. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. I need someone else to read it. If it comes back with the same "WTF?" throughout, then I'll toss it down the well, and I'll have to swallow it. FUCK.
Also, DOUBLE FUCK!
FUCK!
FUCK!
I wish I could step back and deal with this article in a dispassionate problem-solver, but Jesus, it's been mercilessly hacked and rejiggered for a year, and I don't think it makes more sense now than it did before. When the original reviewers got it, one liked it as it was and said it was "potentially seminal" in the field. The editor agreed in her cover letter. This was a HUGE high. But the more I've reworked it, the more tepid the response has been.
Fuck.
HJ
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5 comments:
I would recommend looking back through the early version, and seeing what has been changed significantly. Editing is a pain in the ass. Recently, I tried to take a 7-page paper and jam into it a 4-page quadruple-spaced conference proceedings. I had to ask for another page. I just couldn't do it without losing something crucial, even with playing every formatting trick I could think of.
i don't know how it is with writing. I work in IT, when i have some seemingly unsolvable problem. I put whole damn thing in the closet for 9-12 months.
scotch helps too.
It's frustrating. I've been working on a number of projects in the last several months, and since the beginning of spring semester, I have gone to more conferences and given more talks than in the previous 3 years combined. I did a hell of a lot of writing on a book, and it's not translating into publications, which I would like to have when I go onto the job market this year. So, I feel that I am under the gun. And you have to decide, "Am I going to work on this project that keeps getting less appealing or go onto other things that have not been asked back for review?" It's a tough call for me, again, with the time constraints it is slightly more harrowing. So, that's what I am wrestling with right now.
Scotch does not help with my spelling.
HJ
If you want to send the original, the responses, and the revised along to me, I can see what I can do. Not a professional, mind, but I am a fresh pair of eyes. dhunterauthor at yahoo dot com.
Aw shucks, Dana, I appreciate it. I talked to the people in my department today, and they told me that I'd be better off regaining my bearings by writing a new abstract for it and then repurposing what I already have. I'm going to do that.
HJ
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