Not So Constructive Criticism

I have been working furiously on final touches to my book.  Today was the day I asked Dan to start reading it.  He’s read older versions, but I’ve done a ton of revisions since then.  I anxiously watch his face, await his feedback.  OMG was that a smile?  Nope, false alarm, he was just warming up to a sneeze.

He says he’s tired of reading and will get back to the rest of it later.  I boldly say “Well?  What do you think?”  Dan furrows his brow, thinks for a minute and says “The beginning isn’t funny enough.  You need to go back and make it funnier.”  I frantically scroll back to the beginning and show him all the funny parts.  He agrees it’s funny, but doesn’t think it’s funny enough.

I remind him that cancer was mostly funny, but not all, and I have no credibility unless I’m honest with my readers about the few less than laugh-out-loud moments.  I remind him of one such moment, which he brilliantly declares is not very funny.  Sigh.

As we weren’t making any progress on the first item, we moved on to his next insight.  He doesn’t like that I say mostly nice things about him and then later say something like he was trying to off me for insurance money.  It’s a little thing I like to call humor, but Dan tells me it’s too abrupt.  Okey dokey, note to self:  stop being abrupt.

THE END

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2 Responses to Not So Constructive Criticism

  1. Jill Foer Hirsch says:

    Exactly-men always want to fix everything. We went through the same evolution with my blog. Paws off!

  2. Kate says:

    Hmmm….perhaps he’s too close to the story. When I started blogging my husband read a few before I posted. He tried to fix them. I didn’t want him to fix them, I just wanted a reaction. Now he reads them after I post! I am looking forward to this book!

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