Oh joy, crumbs of feedback

I used to be a newspaper reporter for a rinky-dink little paper doing stories with no glamor to them at all. But despite that, it was still a huge thrill each week when the paper came out to see my name in ink on newsprint at the top of a story. (Several stories, actually. We worked like dogs.) Overnight each Wednesday the copies of that week's paper for office use would get delivered to the little closet that served as our morgue, and when we arrived in the morning all the reporters would crowd in there grabbing copies to inspect, smearing the still warm ink all over ourselves. It's funny the little things we can get a charge out of as writers.

I was reminded of that yesterday when I got a little note from one of my readers. I'm having a couple friends read this draft and am sitting tight waiting for them to finish. Yesterday I exchanged emails with one of them to finalize our plans to meet next week. And in passing she said, "I have to say (and seriously, not because you are my friend) I am really enjoying the book ... I look forward to reading it each night!"

Now, I am a natural-born compliment killer. (i.e. "You're just saying that because you're my friend. So you're just saying you're not just saying that because you're my friend because as my friend you know that you have to say you're not just saying that because you're my friend. And what do you mean, you haven't even finished yet? You'll probably hate the ending.")

But that's something me and my therapist have been working on, so I did accept the compliment and from this tiny tiny little scrap of positive feedback got a pretty good buzz.

FYI, a post from several months ago on feedback on a previous draft.