Since you have nothing to lose, why not emulate Stephen King and Nora Roberts? Write what YOU think is good. Don't show it to anybody. Revise it as YOU find fit and then submit it to agents and/or publishers. You're never going to get that far with your current process so it's time to try something else.
I would greatly appreciate that much feedback, even if it was contradictory. I can always put it through my self-filter. I find that the feedback I do get is extremely useful.
Agreed! If the whole process is really getting you down then yeah maybe it's time to step out on a completely different limb. Have you been working in different genres or sticking with the same one? Maybe the genre you're going for is just not for you. I have tried to write young adult a dozen times. And all dozen attempts were miserable and definitively not young adult - so young adult's not for me! I also know it's difficult/impossible, but comparing yourself to other writers is going to drive you insane, eventually. I mean obviously you will still read and communicate with other writers, but their successes do not equal your failure, so try not to let it feel like they do.
I've written in every genre. So no, it's not a matter of finding the one where I'll be a genius at. Which is a laughable idea. Writing is writing, whether you're writing romance or horror or "literary" or sci-fi or YA. Writing is simply good or bad. I think most people will agree.
Hmm well if you have tried every genre maybe that's not the issue you're facing. I actually disagree with the statement that "writing is writing," though. I mean, ultimately yes you must have the basic mechanics down, but if you're trying to write something and your heart's just not in it, I don't think you'll get the same results as you will writing something that you live and breathe. *insert shrug* just a personal opinion, but I don't think having a particular genre you excel in over another is a "laughable idea."
No, I meant the idea that switching genres would turn you suddenly into a genius -- THAT'S laughable. If you totally suck at football, it's not like playing rugby is gonna make much difference. Just stay home and don't do anything. Or rob a bank. Snort cocaine. At least you'll have some money and get a high for once.
I don't think the suggestion was that it would turn you into a genius! I don't find the concept laughable at all. If someone had spent 10 years trying to write horror and failing miserably, maybe it's because they have no idea how to build tension in a scary story. If they then sat down to write a funny romance, they might find they were fantastic at showing chemistry between two people and writing sexual tension. Do you really think Stephen King could write a romance that people would love as much as his horror? Or that a Mills & Boon author could write a horror as successful as It?
A couple of years ago I was working with a girl (a rower) who tried out for the Olympic rowing team. She was rejected as, at 6-foot, she wasn't tall enough. It was suggested that she might go for hammer-throwing. Or how many (male) swimmers shorter than 6-3 have been successful in the last thirty years? Damned few. Or, can you imagine Mo Farah outsprinting Usain Bolt? Or, vice-versa, over distances greater than a mile? Different people have different aptitudes. Yes, switching genre won't, overnight, make you a genius, but in the same way that different physical types are more suited to different events, writers have different areas where they can do their best.
