In the beginning there was light. An idea, a spark, a vision to manifest into reality through your powerful prose in shades of purple. You've got a great idea to explore, a wondrous setting, and a meta analysis on the topic. This is gonna be great.
So you write! And draft, and write, and revise, and redraft, and write again, and then you finally submit it for crits and… you have been found wanting.
You begin to lament [cope]: They just don't understand my vision! It's because they haven't read far enough along to see it all come together! They just don't like this genre! They just don't like my style! They just don't know!
Honey, [dear eliza], give it a rest.
If what you're trying to communicate isn't coming across, then it's not working. That's all any feedback is at the end of the day: this bit isn't doing it's job. Suggestions to help make something work are up to you to accept/reject - but the key takeaway is that what you have isn't clear.
Often when we begin our writing journey, we approach it from a place of self-assumed competence. We enjoy reading, the books we read are good, we have a good idea, therefore we will be able to write well right out the gate. Baha! If only confidence was all it took to learn a new skill.
We may start our stories in the beginning, but that's rarely where start our writing journey.
So let's start at the very beginning [arguably the very best place to start].
Writing and story telling are artistic expressions based on a foundational skill: communication. Hooray! There's hope for us all to effectively communicate our stories! But also… how unglamorous. How painfully embarrassing to have to scale back to a 3rd grade reading level to learn to write clearly and directly. How crippling is it to realize you wouldn't pass 5th grade grammar if you had to take it now?
My advice? Scale back your project.
Take off that load of self-imposed expectations and only come back to it once you're confident you can carry it. Sometimes that means tabling an idea that's too complicated for you to communicate at your current level. Sometimes it means scaling back on the theme/point so we can practice entertaining the reader. Sometimes it means giving up before you've fully started because you need to learn the basics. Sometimes it means working on something you're less passionate about so that you can learn to face criticism and rejection.
I didn't learn to play piano by starting with Mozart, but I have forgotten beginner 1. The curse of knowledge is real, and it makes learning a painful process.
It's so much easier to accept feedback and learn new skills when you're working with an idea that's fun enough, but the stakes are low so if it's awful, it's no sweat off your back. When the stakes are low, and the story is paired back it's easier to test our limits through play. Because who cares if you make a mistake while playing hot cross buns? It's expected and necessary to learn.
Adjust your expectations of yourself, and adjust your projects accordingly. Keep jotting down ideas until you find one that you aren't so invested in you're afraid to experiment with it, and use it to hone your craft. Pick a fun story to start with and enjoy the process!
And don't forget, learning to write is learning how to entertain with clear communication.