Taking hits from feedback

It’s always interesting when you ask colleagues whose opinions you really respect for feedback, and what you hear from them is not good. That happened recently, for my new novel, SUNRISING, the sequel to A FALSE DAWN that I’m now preparing.

Both their responses, basically, were on the order of “You’ve done a lot of work here, Jeff, but it doesn’t add up to much.” After absorbing the shock of their comments, I set to work considering their suggestions and making changes to the text. I’ve always considered myself a great fixer of my own work.

Well, we’ll see. Like any writing, novels have a way of exhibiting your strengths and exposing your weaknesses, not just as a writer but as a human being. I’m afraid that my personal caution may prevent the new books from being as good as I’d like it to be. Because I’ve been so cautious in my interactions with people, all my life, I”m afraid that I can’t even imagine conversations between characters in my novels that would be more revealing, more truthful, the kinds of interactions that readers generally look for.

As I said, we’ll see. The story of SUNRISING is not over, far from it. I want it to be a great book, worthy of me and of my readers’ time. For that reason, I’m digging deeper into my characters, into myself.