When You Get Conflicting Feedback

What do you do when you get conflicting feedback on your writing?

At my last writers conference I was given two completely opposing opinions on my MS in progress.

An editor representing a major publishing house told me, “This is some of the best writing I’ve seen here.”

Wow. That felt good. I was pumped!

Later that same day: “Your writing needs to be brought up a couple of notches.” This from another person I greatly respect.

And all my enthusiasm drained.

I know this is not an uncommon occurrence. The reality is, some will love our writing. Others, not so much. Some will point out minor punctuation errors but praise everything else. Others will want to change almost every paragraph.

So when that happens, who do you listen to? What DO you do with a dilemma like this?

What did I do? I went into a big blue funk.

Yep. Crashed and burned.

It took about a week before everything stopped ricochetting around in my head and finally sank in. Then I moaned and lamented to God. I doubted (again) the clear calling I have to write. I cried. I questioned my understanding and God’s timing.

I felt confused, overwhelmed, and discouraged.

I second guessed myself, and God, and every previous indicator that I write fairly well.

Then I read this from my journal: 

“When you are living out of your own life, you act as though you are the central reference point.”

It’s a quote from Madame Jeanne Guyon, stolen from an excellent novel, Lost and Found, by Ginny Yttrup. It hit me right between the eyes.

If I’m writing for God, and if it really is all about Him, then why am I experiencing so much angst?

Because it’s not really all about Him.

But I want it to be.

So I gave it back. All of it. To Him.

The pressure of the number of words I write, or don’t write, each day. The concern about who will like it. The worry about it ever getting published.

And guess what?

Suddenly, writing is fun again. It’s Him, and me, playing—with words. The way it’s supposed to be.

What do you think?

Have you ever received confusing or conflicting feedback on your writing?

How did you deal with it?