E.A. Brady

“I just don’t care enough about these people to keep reading.”

That comment came from my then fourteen-year-old son when he read through an early draft of a story I’d written. The story is not a romance, though there may be a romance in it, so much as it is a supernatural, small town type thing. (I know, not an actual genre, but I’m still not sure how to categorize it!)

Anyway, feedback like that could have hurt my feelings. But I didn’t let it. I have learned over time to develop a thick skin when it comes to my writing, and to work hard to separate myself from my words.

I am committed to writing stories that people want to read. I am committed to making these stories interesting and entertaining. So, when my son told me he didn’t care about either of the people I’d written so far, I had to stop and look at why he said what he said.

I bombarded the poor kid with questions about what worked (because some stuff, he said, was pretty good) and what didn’t. Why he didn’t care about the characters and what would help him to do so.

As it turns out, it wasn’t that I’d written terrible or boring characters, it was a problem with my pacing. In order to “get to the good stuff,” I hadn’t spent enough time building up my characters to a point where he, or anyone else, would care what happened to them – “good” or not.

Sometimes it’s really difficult as a writer to accept feedback that is in direct contrast to what you anticipate. On the flip side, I’ve written things that I thought were just OK, and my writer’s group absolutely loved.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, just keep going. Keep writing because you have to keep writing. You want to keep writing. Get the words out.

You can’t go back and fix them until you’ve got them written.

Who do you trust to give feedback? Let me know in the comments below.

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