Advice from reader/editors which proved to be near useless.

[The Backlash Cometh]

First of all, I'm thankful for any advice that anybody can give me. I've been extremely lucky that the people who have read for me, who were not paid for the services, just good souls doing a good deed, told me what I needed to know in the kindest of terms.

But when I was ready for the next step, getting advice from paid professionals, I braced for the worst. I discovered that as long as I understood their critique, I took it very well. Especially the comments that were not flattering. Because their advice helped me condense the story by encouraging me tto introduce the backstory sooner so the reader could follow more easily.

But here's the thing. Some advice didn't make sense at all. Especially the editor who said that she couldn't tell me what my story was about when we only submitted the first three pages for critique. I thought this over, thinking back on all the stories I've read and most, if not all of them, you would never know what the story was about in the first three pages.

In my story, you know by the end of the first chapter. So, I decided that sometimes advice from "professionals" should be discarded.

Am I being arrogant with that decision? Or have others reached the same conclusion?