[Strangler Lewis]

The assumption there, of course, is that you're staying in a hotel without standards where the maitre d' would tell you you're looking lovely this morning rather than suggest you go upstairs and change. Such a hotel may be the equivalent of the Facebook experience where the only feedback one would be likely to get from the "public" on such a piece would be some dutiful variation of "Awesome." In that sense, I'm not sure Facebook is a good online writers group model. But then, it's not clear to what end CP wants to put this out there. Share feelings? Show the power of her writing? Do both? Seek validation of both?

It hasn't happened often to me, but getting published and paid is fun. Getting rejected is not, but there are many writers and limited fora, the people who get published all know somebody, and the editors are all assholes. Etc. Thus, one can still value one's own POV--which is why one writes in the first place--even after a rejection. One may even be prompted to take a harder look at one's own craft.