Receiving feedback to "make my story straight" was a memorable moment in my writing journey that significantly contributed to my growth as an author. It urged me to refine the structure and coherence of my narrative, ensuring that the plot, characters, and themes align logically and flow smoothly throughout the story. This feedback challenged me to enhance clarity, maintain consistency, and engage readers more effectively, ultimately elevating the quality and impact of my writing.
Today you're not writing your best work, so focus on just writing. This is what relieved me from the stress of trying to improve every day, trying to produce something that is better that I wrote the day before. You cannot be 1% better than the day before, every day. Just try to write something. Focus on consistency, and you will improve naturally over time. Don't stress on the quality, because some days will naturally be worse. Give yourself some slack and you will be surprised by the results.
"We hired you to write a book about creating poems from life experience because we enjoy your instructional voice. Don't be so heavy on quoting others," my editor at Walking Stick Press (an imprint of Writer's Digest Books) said of my manuscript draft years ago. He gave me the confidence I needed to metabolize what my teachers had taught me and write to my readers in my own words and voice from my own experience. I went on to write many more instructional books after that book, Writing Personal Poetry: Creating Poems from Your Life Experiences.