I'll Tell You Why

aking criticism isn't easy, especially after you've worked through several drafts and are simply told to change scenes because. Fortunately, thanks to some solid feedback, I've found it easier to make big changes to ACYW because I was told why to make certain changes.

If I'm a novice and someone with more experience than me tells me to do something, odds on I'm going to listen to them. But if it's a field I think I know a thing or two about, I'm less likely to blindly adhere to their recommendations unless they give me the why. Once I understand their reasoning, I'm more apt to listen and make a change.

In this case I thought I could write Ulysses without ever writing Dubliners or Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man first. Now I see that there's just as much beauty (and challenge) in writing The Dead as there is in Finnegan's Wake. Not only that, but the criticism (and the whys) have steered ACYW closer to where it needs to be; to it's original story, trimmed down to the basics, riding a big idea from beginning to end.