At What Point Do You Simply Give Up?

You never give up ^^. Even if the ratio is 40:60 positive:negative comments, as long as the 40 exist, writing is still worth it ^^. Also, there is no such thing as perfect, so the 60% is important too, perhaps more so than the 40.

The truth hurts ninety percent of the time- as long as you have the willl and the confidence to keep at it- it doesn't matter how many neysayers exist. Also, after so many revisions, you'll lose sight of your vision, sometimes you need to say "Okay, thanks, I'll be on my way now" and be done with it all (the revisions and such, not the piece).

Ignore Webook. Full of talentless wannabes that want a quick writing career. Not going to happen.

The thing is, if you're going to be a professional writer, this is the hard path you have to go down. I have friends who are nearly 40 and have still not broken through after decades, yet they keep plugging away.

Imagine spending a year writing a novel and have no one accept it. Heart breaking? You bet. Now imagine the same thing after 6 unpublished novels! Thats what the average was when this was discussed at the HWA.

If you wanna be a writer, I guess you'll carry on just for the fun of it. Personally, I came close to jacking the whole thing in (and still am. Why waste time when I can spend more time with my partner and kids instead?). But this is something I have to do. Besides, my partner reads everything I write and it makes her smile. I'd carry on simply for that.

It's not a question of talent, it's about desire.

Ore,

I'm going to be blunt with this, so if I cause you or anyone else offense with language used and such, apologies in advance.

Well basically, I just want to say a lot of opinions can be worth jack **** most of the time, though you can get some that are helpful. It's also human nature at times to say (in this case, type) nothing if they're not going say something negative.

What I think you need to do is this:

Take what you need from critiques, i.e what you find helpful and ignore the parts you don't because as mentioned, critiques (opinions) can be worth jack **** a lot of the time. Following that, learn to try and trust your own intuition on what works and what doesn't. Plus, try to realise that you'll never get anywhere by trying to please everyone. And yes, I've done all the mistakes mentioned here. In general, I just don't post anything anymore.

Lastly, ask yourself two questions:

Do I think I'm a bad writer and do I have a chance at making it no matter how small?

The answers I expect you to find when you ask yourself those questions are positive ones.

Bottom line, it doesn't matter what others think of your writing until you're trying to publish. Even then, it might not matter if you're not doing it for the money. Besides, a small group of people on a forum cannot ever answer for the entire world as to whether your writing is good or not. (Hope that last sentence makes sense) Opinions differ wildly from person to person and each tends to think they're right. Well, they are in a way, as opinions can't be wrong if they're given truthfully, but they cannot be stated as facts.

What matters is what you think of your writing. I'd also go as far as to say it also matters what the people you trust most think. It just doesn't matter too much what strangers on a forum think, when they're not going to pay you money and their opinions aren't representative of the entire world.

So basically, have faith in your writing and I really do hope this helps. I definitely know what you're going through.

Whiner! ;P