Thank you, Jane, for the clarity and good sense of this piece. It comes at the perfect time for me.

My hubbish one is away for a few days, and I’ve been hibernating with my 65k word memoir manuscript, trying to get it to hang together. Much of it has already been published as individual essays, some in very good journals, but yesterday I literally hid under the covers, in fear that the manuscript sucked, that people I don’t even know yet will hold me, my family, and my writing in contempt. The feeling passed, but still…

I’ll come back to your piece when that bad feeling returns!