Do or Dye

BJ's posted yesterday on eyebrow waxing reminded me that I have a hair appointment tomorrow morning to touch up my hair's roots. It's bad. As in, I'll walk in the door and they'll, like BJ, immediately know why I am there and usher me to the back before the rest of the salon can see and think they somehow were involved in all my rooty glory.

I change hair color like some people change socks. I go back and forth from blonde, to blonde-blonde, to blondish-brown, to brown-brown, and back again like a color wheel out of control. Traditionally, women like to go lighter in the spring/summer and darker in the fall/winter. Well right now I'm blonde, and I'm considering going browner again for the coming season, but...I can't decide. So I started a mass poll of family and friends, asking which color they preferred better, and somehow feeling borderline insulted regardless of their answer.

Its like that with writing.

Sometimes, we have to let the opinions go. We have to take the advice with a smile and gritted teeth and then do what we want to do.

I'm not talking about "rules". Some rules in writing, especially Christian fiction writing, really must be followed to produce a quality project. Readers (and editors!) expect certain things that really can't be bent.

I'm referring to the "other stuff". Like when a friend proof-reads your manuscript and somehow has you doubting your heroine's name, even though you spent hours researching the meaning and making sure it fit her personality perfectly. Or when you spend forever forming a really neat metaphor that you think totally rocks and a crit partner says doesn't work. If you're brand new to writing, get a second opinion and investigate. If you're not, then....DO WHAT YOU WANT. It is YOUR story.

I hear alllll the time of writers growing so frustrated because, in their insecurity, they asked for too many opinions and after implementing all the changes, realized there were too many cooks in the kitchen and the once delicious, bubbling pot of stew now tasted like their favorite leather pump.

Too many opinions can kill a writer's story.

So trust yourself. Trust your instincts. Write YOUR story. Yes, get second opinions. Yes, listen to someone if they tell you that something really jolted them from the flow or if you have a typo or a grammatical error or something else along those lines. But for the parts of the story that make it yours, keep it yours.

I still have no idea what color my hair will be after ten o'clock tomorrow morning. But I do know that I am making the choice =)