Not sure if this is the right forum, but I wanted to express my sincere gratitude to all of you who took the time to comment on my first story, An Accidental Family. I never thought that 150+ people would read it, let alone comment on it, and I am really touched that so many of you took the time to let me know what you thought.
As a form of personal accountability, I wanted to share my summary of your comments listed roughly frequency of occurrence and, where possible, share my response. There were a few comments I read but didn’t entirely agree with that didn’t make it onto this list, but please know that I read them all and that I appreciate your taking the time to share your thoughts. I’d like to particularly thank the Anonymous User who shared an incredibly long and detailed critique—again, although I don’t agree with all your points, I genuinely appreciate your taking the time to provide your feedback.
The summary:
1. Great first effort / really enjoyed the story / dialogue / characters – I am chuffed that so many people enjoyed the story. Thank you!
2. Yes, I want a sequel – I’m on it as fast my dyslexic brain can write, and my day job and family allow.
3. You need to find a good editor – I hear you. I have reached out to some of the editors on the Editors List and hopefully one of them will be interested in working with me. If there are any good editors reading this, please feel free to drop me a line :) I have also submitted a copy-edited version of the original story that should be live in about a week or so. In retrospect, I hit ‘publish’ at least one editing cycle to soon, but I was super anxious about submitting and worried that if I didn’t publish now that I never would.
4. What happens to Lisa and her sisters? / Where did Ted and Sue go? / I want to hear more about JT’s mom – all these questions/requests will be answered in the second part that I am currently writing. Again, in retrospect, it might have been better to wait and combine both parts into a single longer story but I’m still new to this writing business, so hopefully I will figure things like that out earlier in the process next time.
5. You kind of dropped the ball on the ending / the ending was too abrupt – With the benefit of hindsight I would have to say, “you are correct.” I was looking for an elegant way to wrap up the story and maybe it didn’t land as well as it could have. I will try to do better next time.
6. I am not American / what the heck is American football? - To misquote The Princess Bride, ‘I am not American either.’ :) I tried to provide some background on the sport in my descriptions of the game play, but I guess I missed the mark for some. I will try to find a better balance next time.
7. All the characters seemed too kind / it wasn’t realistic enough / real life doesn’t work out that conveniently – well, I did publish in the Romance section. I wasn’t really going for ‘gritty realism’.
Again, thanks to all of you who commented and read the story and I hope to have the second part published in the near-ish future.
CGN
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I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who took the time to read, comment and vote on my first story. I am truly touched at all the support and kind words. I am working on a part 2 as quickly as my dyslexia and ADHD will allow and, yes, I will see if I can find an editor to help this time :)
Cheers
Location
Canada