Dear Geist,

Why doesn't my writers group like the best personal essay I've ever written? For once in my life I really let it rip, pouring my heart out after being told that I was “too defended” in my work, too safe. Now they say it's way too much. It's too personal. They seem embarrassed and they get shifty-eyed. Help!

—Alina in Cyberspace

Dear Alina,

Congratulations! It sounds like you made a big breakthrough, and then you took that fresh draft to the group just the way it was. To have made the leap is indeed a monumental achievement, but the work may not be ready to go out in public. We suggest you leave it alone for two or three weeks, then take a good look at it and see what comes to mind. As with any great writing, you want to seduce readers, not imprison them. Or, as the writer Annie Dillard once put it: “You have to take pains in a memoir not to hang on to the reader's arm, like a drunk, and say, 'And then I did this and it was so interesting'. . . ” So let it sit for a week or two, then bring it out, roll up your sleeves and see what you've got.

—The Editors