Monday, March 07, 2011

NATURAL-BORN CRITICS

So...I read my kiddos the first chapter of my book tonight.

She was sitting at my feet, arms folded across my right knee, her chin resting on her elbow -- wide-eyed and raising her hand every few sentences to get the definition of a word.

He was curled up right next to me on the sofa, grabbing onto my arm with both of his, pulling me in tighter and tighter as the story began to build, and watching my mouth as I read.

When it was done, they both said, "Is that IT???"

It was only the first chapter, I said.  And explained that I was still tweaking the rest of it. They scowled.  But when I asked them what they thought of it, what they honestly thought, they were just about the best things I ever could've hoped for.

He thought the chapter was just a paragraph too long, that it should've ended here instead of there.

She thought some of the visuals weren't clear enough and asked for more descriptives around a few different scenes.

Overall, it was a very productive meeting.  They loved the direction of the story.  They found it entertaining and found themselves wanting more.  :)

Think I may have found my editors after all.
...

2 comments:

myevil3yearold said...

You take criticism well!

I would have grabbed my stuff and huffed off the couch and yelled, "Your not so critical when your shoveling the dinner I made into your mouths."

No, I really wouldn't actualy do that. I would just want to but I am glad you have good critics. They have our best interest sat heart!

Jo Anna Guerra said...

Yes, clearly they caught me in a good moment. I'm never that reasonable...about anything. :D :D :D