Receiving Editor's Notes: Stage O

I realized yesterday that my writing posts several days before they go live can come back and bite me a bit if I'm not careful. I HAVE emerged from the haze of editing! Huzzah! Of course, the morning (midnight) after I turned in Stone Curse, my 6 year old started throwing up, and then a day later my 3 year old followed suit. The baby and I and my husband seem to have escaped the general ickiness, and I actually got a full night of sleep the last two nights.Today I am continuing my series on the stages of receiving notes back from an editor. These posts are not to be mistaken for actual pyschological help. If you are suffering heavily from editing shock, you should seek a professional immediately (or go buy a gallon of your favorite ice cream). These posts are for entertainment purposes only.Yesterday we talked about the P stage, or "the Panic" stage. However, Panic quickly gives way to the second stage:O - for "Outrage"Also known as defensiveness, the Outrage Stage (haha, rhyme!) is a perfectly normal set of emotions for an author to feel upon receiving a critique. You just handed someone your darling baby, all perfect and chubby, with a sweet smile, and that person didn't even have the decency to ask if you need glasses. No, they coldly told you the baby was in the way, and you need to move it.What? How dare they?Yes, my friends, the outrage stage is perfectly normal. You will have thoughts such as, "Well, if you know so much, why don't you just write the story, then?" You will want to argue, bicker, force them to see the story the way you see it, and acknowledge that it is brilliant beyond compare, the best thing written since William Shakespeare held a quill.These are all fine things to feel. BUT, if you want to get anywhere as an author, you cannot stay in this stage. And you must not. I repeat: MUST NOT act or respond while in this stage!Because the truth is, you need to take a step back. The editor is not saying that your baby is ugly, or that it's in the way. You need to listen better. They are saying the BABY is adorable, but the OUTFIT you chose for it looks like something one of the Batman Villains might have picked out.The outrage stage may last for a while, it may linger. The hurt feelings will sting. But in the end, if you ever want to become a real author, you need to be able to look at the critique and say, "Yes, you are right. It makes no sense for my character to begin an arduous journey with little to no preparation right at the beginning of winter." That doesn't mean you have to agree with everything the editor said or recommended. You may decide they were right about how illogical your story was, but you may choose to fix it in a way other than how they recommended. That is also fine.You may decide that you definitely do not agree with something they said. In that case, it is fine to respectfully disagree. But be careful what you choose to step up to the plate for. (Are you enjoying all my mixed metaphors and cliches? I am!) As you edit the story, you might even discover that their idea was actually quite good, and you end up using it anyway!How long you last in this stage depends entirely on you. When I was younger (in high school) I used to camp out in this stage for a very long time. I had an extremely defensive side, and as a result I did not take criticism well at all... which made it hard to actually show anyone anything I had written - and nobody really wanted to read it, either, because of how I would react if they didn't think it was brilliant. Thankfully, I have matured a bit since my high school and college years, and while criticism can still sting a bit, I can move past it pretty easily nowadays. Of course, for me, that means I dive into stage three... which I'll tell you all about tomorrow!