the better part of me

Several things.

Firstly, I wouldn't be the writer I am today without beta-readers. Feedback is essential, in any medium. Most of the top dogs in AMVs at Boston have circles of friends to preview their work. It's not at all uncommon.

I've been making AMVs for six years. I've improved as much as I can on my own. I don't know where to go from here. With "The Bad Crack," I thought I had created a great video. I worked on it for two years(!), until I couldn't think of anything that would improve it further. Clearly, despite my very best effort, it's still not the kind of video conventions are looking for. And I don't know why. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. What can I do but ask someone for input?

I'm sorry if this response is a bit bitter, but this feels like the same old "You have to figure it out yourself" line I always get when I ask for tips on improving my AMVs. I have exhausted what innate talent I have in this area. I need help, and I don't know how to find any, and it's very frustrating. If it really all comes from a person's own individual creativity, then I should definitely give up now, because there's nothing more in me.

Secondly, the more I think about it the more I want to quit the contest scene. The fact is, the kind of videos I want to make are not the kind that contests are looking for. I'm tired of trying to make the kind of AMVs that cons will like. Plus, I have a million hobbies and I struggle with every one of them. I write, I edit, I do cosplay, I run websites, I run panels and contests and I staff a convention. And those are just my fandom hobbies. I'm a jack of all trades and a master of none because I don't have enough time or energy to become great at any particular thing. I need to cut down on my hobbies, badly. AMVs are time-consuming, expensive, frustrating, difficult to distribute, and I don't seem to have a natural flair for them. It's an easy one to set aside.

Thirdly...

if you can write beautifully then you can create AMVs.

Writing and vidding are absolutely not the same. There's a huge difference between inventing situations via the written word and assembling an effective clip show out of stock footage. It takes a completely different skill set to create something that looks good vs. something that reads well. You might as well say anyone who can write can draw.