To Get Feedback or Not to get Feedback!

Ok, I admit it, I have been avoiding getting outside influences concerning what and how I write. I read a lot and I love playing with words and I know there are tons of quick fix advice out there for writers however, I learned something very young I am going to now share.
 
When I was about 15, I left my home on March break and ventured into the big city of Halifax to take a workshop at the school I would later graduate from: Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.
 
The workshop was on carving plaster given my a senior art student. He was a lovely young man who was really eager to help.
 
We made the wooden box making sure it was sealed, lined it with Vaseline and poured in the plaster so we each had our own block of plaster to work with. I loved it!!! I had been carving soap and anything else I could manage with a jack knife for years so to have all those tools and something so soft was a dream!
 
I went to work on it. I let the material speak to me. I was starting to get a vision of what was coming and this young instructor came over and told me it looked like a beer bottle!
 
Now, if I was not me, I may have turned off my vision and tried to please him however I didn’t. Instead I kept on carving and filing and looking at it from all angles. I ended up with a stylized figure on one side that morphed into two intertwined figures on the other sides which I polished to a high sheen so it looked almost was white marble. In the end I gave it away because in my family, someone would have just broke it.  I do think somewhere I may have a photo or two of it.
 
I realized then and there I was never going to walk to the beat of anything but my own drum and I really didn’t need the headaches of other folks suggestions…especially while in process. I think that is why an artist covers their work and won’t let others see it until it is done! They just do not want the influences while they are in process!
 
On another occasion I was working on an angel for outside someone’s business for the side of the building. It was a piece that had a 9x12 piece of plywood backing.
 
It was a chicken wire mesh armature stuffed with paper and then filled with expanding spray foam which would go outside the armature and be carved. I had an industrial paint that was made for this material which was UV and fungi proof.
 
I made the mistake of showing the armature to a friend whom I realized later was so insistent she was right in her opinions it didn't matter what you said.  She insisted the wire breasts of my angel were too small. I kept telling her that the foam would expand behind them but because she was so insistent, i listened.
 
Needless to say, after the piece was hung, I was sitting in a coffee shop with my friend and over heard someone say, MAN THAT ANGEL HAS THE BIGGEST BOOBS I HAVE EVER SEEN!
 
I had tried to carve them smaller however the wire kept poking through and I gave up. I learned from that…I don’t ask for or accept the advice of just anyone! It costs too much in the end!
 
After I wrote my manuscript for my novel, I did get feedback from some individuals who I knew read a lot and who were thoughtful. The feedback they gave I did follow, for the most part, and I did make some executive decisions about what grammar to use and when I would use quotation marks which are one of the many things usually a editor and publisher do, however I let the quirks of my particular style of writing and the voice of my characters to remain even if they are not orthodox or grammatically correct.
 
I figure that is my right as an Indie publisher and one of the perks of self publishing. I know published authors who have many fights with their editor to keep what they want to remain. The only one I have to fight with is whether I choose to do as others do or what I want to do…
 
Knowing myself, being an Indie Publisher is the best choice for me even if I am broke the rest of my days. It may be the price I pay for personal freedom, however i made that choice a very long time ago.
 
For you, the choice may be a new way of being in the world, and may be scary however even though it isn’t for everyone, you may find you are a lot happier for walking to the beat of your own drum.