Welcome to my porch. Isn’t it a beauty? This is what happens when poor craftsmanship and the wrong materials meet Canadian winters.
The same disaster can happen to your story if you don’t take time to do things properly, and if you don’t bother to learn the skills of the trade. There’s no point querying a story that would be better off lining your hamster cage. You’re only setting yourself up for frustration. If the structure is weak, the characterizations lacking, and the protagonist’s emotions don’t create any stirrings in the reader, it doesn’t matter how pretty your words are, the story will fall apart.
Fortunately, unlike my porch, the cost to make your project beautiful both inside and out is not expensive. Workshops, craft books, and awesome critique partners and beta readers will help you make your story strong. Maybe, like my porch, the story needs to be demolished and rebuilt. Maybe you need to send it on a world cruise and tackle it again in the future, once you’ve gained new skills.
Do you have a story you’ve temporarily shelved that you plan to eventually revisit? If you’ve written several stories, do you find your skills have been improving over time, and you can’t believe you once thought your first project was ready for the world?