Over the holidays, I had an opportunity to catch up on some of the interviews some of the Gurus have done over the past little while. Clayton Makepeace recently interviewed John Carlton. I listened to that interview probably five or six times or more, I lost count. In it John talks about the superego and how it affects ones writing. One of the things he mentions in that interview is that you need to be disciplined enough to be prepared to scrap your copy if you are convinced its not working for you (Im talking during the writing stage, not necessarily at the testing stage). He says it can be one of the most painful things for a writer to do, but that sometimes it is necessary to scrap it and start over again. He said, despite what you might think, this can actually be quite freeing. I thought that was interesting.

Carlton indicated he is known for his reputation for giving very tough critiques and he says he judges peoples writing in the same way he would judge his own, and that it is important to leave your ego at the door.

I guess the message I got was that it is good to be critical of your own work - just don't judge yourself so harshly that it crushes your spirit and knocks you out of the game.

All I can say is that I really appreciated that interview and what he had to say. Hope this helps?