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Q&A How do I gain sufficient emotional distance from my work to edit it?

This question was asked by a member of my critique group at the beginning of the month and I've been stewing over it for a while now. I still don't have any better ideas, so I'm turning to you. How...

3 answers  ·  posted 8y ago by Jerenda‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Question editing
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:01:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/26358
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Jerenda‭ · 2019-12-08T06:01:02Z (almost 5 years ago)
This question was asked by a member of my critique group at the beginning of the month and I've been stewing over it for a while now. I still don't have any better ideas, so I'm turning to you. How can a writer separate their emotions from the content of their work? How can you tell "yes, this is good" or "okay, this needs work" without having to rely on your personal opinions, which might be heavily skewed by the fact that you wrote it?

_Edit to add:_ As [Neil Fein](https://writers.stackexchange.com/users/26/neil-fein) points out, answers should focus on the different techniques available to writers and the benefits and drawbacks of each, rather than "well, this works for me." A single "this works for me" solution could be valuable, if it details how to go about the process and the benefits and drawbacks involved, but answers looking at multiple possibilities are more likely to be selected as "best."

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-01-28T18:30:29Z (almost 8 years ago)
Original score: 7