Emotional Impediments to Improving

Reader Ideal Son writes:

"The biggest obstacle in my fiction writing now: when I do a good job being concrete in describing a setting or in revealing a character (through action, thought or dialogue), I end up believing it myself, making it hard to change in subsequent drafts. Sometimes these elements really need to change. It's hard to see, and when I see it it's hard to make the change. I have no doubt it's a purely emotional impediment... It certainly FEELS like an emotional one. But I don't know how to properly address it - do you have any ideas on this?"

Well, you've just put yourself in common with many of the "best of them." We all have these emotional impediments to changing our work. What makes those best writers best is that they deal with their impediments and go on improving their writing. That's what success in writing is all about.

As far as ideas about addressing this impediment, the only way the works regularly for me is to share mss. with other real writers. It's hard to make a reading group like this, but it's worth it. They just have to point to a section or passage, say a few words, and then I generally see it, and rather easily find a solution to work my way out of it.

I think that blindness to our own work is shared by most accomplished writers, though they don't always talk about it. Or write about it.

Any other suggestions for Ideal Son?