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the school is still coming, in fact Max will be meeting the school board soon.

I can't imagine going through a real professional editor. Christ on a cracker, Bronx, that must've been hard. Every single time I post a story - hell, even when I post to a thread or in the shoutbox - I'm a bundle of nerves. Even when it's something I'm proud of, that I've gone over a dozen times with a fine toothed comb and came out the other end loving the finished product. As soon as I click that submit/post button, the anxiety hits me. "Did it sound too stilted? Too clinical? Was that sentence too long? Did I start too many sentences with the same word? OMG is that what I call a transition?!" I usually end up doing a bazillion post-finished-product-edits. In case anyone's wondering: yes, it is entirely possible to over edit. I sympathise, KoKoa.

I'm sorry but I'm laughing over here. Not because it's funny but because I've held off on asking anyone to beta my stories for me for the same reasons as you're freaking out about. I'm afraid that they'll tell me to stick to writing excuse notes for the kiddies and leave the real writing to the professionals. Though my grammar isn't usually that bad, I used to have a problem with run on sentences but I've gotten much better with that, I have a wandering mind. I'm not sure sometimes if my stories bounce around like my thoughts do or if they are more coherent. Oh look a butterfly... I'm sure that you're harder on yourself than you should be. Hearing someone pick apart your work will probably not be easy but maybe you'll end up with an amazing finished product for your readers to enjoy.

I just needed somewhere to rant/freak out about this! If you want to give me feedback on how big of a chicken wuss I am, go right ahead! I guess I've finally cried enough on another website about not getting any reads (although to be honest, I've stopped it a long time ago. Found out that writing was much more enjoyable if I didn't worry myself over who didn't read); someone is right at this moment, taking a look at one of my stories! And I have to say that I am scared shitless! I know, I know; concrit is helpful and yada, yada, yada! And I do appreciate feedback; I'm not one of those who only wants the positive and the "aejfnielbwivwslbv THIS STORY IS A-MAZZING" comments. They don't help. At all. I can only tell you thank you very awkwardly and go back to my crocheting! But, oh my God, I'm about to cry! She's critiquing the author's note, for crying out loud! *cries* I mean, she has a solid point and I'm going to make changes! But, still... is the author's note not even safe anymore?!?! So, now, tomorrow is going to be a very long day for me, filled with mini panic attacks. Because I know she's going to critique a couple of more chapters. And tell me not to quit my day job. Which sucks because I have no job to begin with! Yeah, KoKoa: good job impressing folks with the crapload of an info dump in the very first paragraph! Yep... that helped a ton! I should tell her. I should tell her that I know that I suck and that I need a lot of work and that my MC who I love with all my heart and would marry if she was real and I swung that way, is nothing but a Mary Sue. And that my plots are non existent. And my grammar... fuck, my grammar; that's ghost as well! Let's not start on my dialogue, which I found out that I write it like a five year old Hulk! Because if I tell her then she'll already know what to expect. Maybe she'll be a bit lenient on me and just go with a "you're right" critique. Just... ugh... here... *gives out hard drive* burn it; burn it all!! I've definitely got to be the only one who freaks out when it comes to this... but writing it all out has been slightly helpful

WOW guys...i never knew writers were so self conscious! Now that I made a terrible joke...take a deep breath and partake of the relaxant of your choice. Don't take it to heart, editors are like you third grade grade english teacher, it may seem like they hate you, hate your story, and utterly despise your characters and they may, but remember its your world and you decide what gets changed. The editor can only make suggestions after all. So Kokoa, if you want a universe populated by people who speak like 5 y/o hulks, whose to say that's wrong?

The first time I had to deal with an editor was probably the most emotionally fraught thing I've done as a writer. There is absolutely nothing more demoralizing than having a total stranger read your work, work that a publisher has offered a contract for, and hear, "This is a great story. Really. Now, let's just pretty much rewrite everything from the dedication onward, shall we?" I cried literal tears. I was sure the emotional heart of the story had just been gutted. I knew I'd never be able to recognize what was going to come out at the other end of this literary grinder. I whined with great enthusiasm to my editor, my family, my friends, and anyone who'd listen. I even blogged my woes. And then I knuckled down and started making the changes, one by painful one. The end result was a much tighter, much more coherent story (although I still take issue with all the descriptors). I did apologize after the second pass, when I could see how much better the story was, but gods... It was brutal. I mean, I welcome concrit, but this was concrit with a box cutter. So, the second time around, I tried very hard to incorporate what I'd learned in that first editing massacre. My second manuscript that was accepted was (I thought) lots tighter. And I had a new editor as well, so fresh eyes. Okay, I expected comments. You always get comments. I got a list of words to banish, a huge amount of tweaks as far as those pesky descriptors, and a guitar. Don't ask. I had no idea one of my MCs could even play. I whined about certain things, yes. I wasn't quite as blindsided as I'd been the first time, but it was still hard, and it hurt to have to cut some of what I cut. However, this second time around, I remembered something. This is really important, too, and deserves saying, over and over again: It's MY story. There were some points where my editor and I butted heads, and I stood my ground. If I thought it was important to the story, it stayed. I dropped whole scenes when we simply couldn't make them work. I gave in places, and I stood firm in others, and the manuscript ended up as MY story. Well, except for the guitar. We're losing the guitar in the next book in the series.

So a young couple were parked at the local make out spot when the young lady looked out the passenger side window and saw the car bext to them rocking back and forth, the widows covered in steam. She looked at her date and asked, "What are they doing over there?" "Ah...um, they're making sandwiches." "Oh." She replied as she looked past him and saw the car on his side was rocking back and forth, the windows just as steamed up, "And over there?" "Um, sandwiches too." "That looks like fun, can we make sandwiches?" "Ah sure." The young couple became so engrossed in their sandwich making that they missed the girl's curfew and as they arrived at her house, her father met them with a loaded shotgun in his arms. The young woman jumped out and ran to her father, "Please Daddy, don't shoot him; we were just making sandwiches!" "Mmm hmmm, and I suppose that's mayonnaise running down your leg!"

Yeah the last book would be dark...he's out in space somewhere, every one but him and his his mother are dead, and he runs into a little redheaded blue-eyed alien...You know, who has a blonde sister. if he stays in his own body, I could call it wrinkles in the grass!