Novel writing and enjoying the journey

I just finished my novel for the eighth time. I didn't realize that the revision process would take so long but I had so much to learn. I finished my first draft of my novel and was excited to share it with an agent. That is when I should have heeded caution. I knew that a critique group was extremely important and that it must be made of of more than my mother and my best friends, but I didn't have time for a critique group and I was a published author so I forged ahead and sent out my submission. I came up empty and discouraged and decided it was time to step it up a notch. I signed up for an SCBWI conference and was once again confident that an agent there would appreciate and snatch up my work. It didn't quite go that way. An agent critiqued my work in front of an audience full of writers and told me that my novel sounded like a travel journal. I was crushed and my confidence wavered. However, I decided it was time to stop my solo journey and climb on board with the advice I had not heeded for years. Get a critique group! I found a group of educated, brilliant published authors and learned that I had much to learn. It has been a year of growing, changing and polishing. The novel I completed a year ago is nothing like the novel I now have in the hands of my critique group and for that I am grateful. I have learned that I have much to learn.