“What was the best compliment you’ve received?”
“I wouldn’t have written this much if I thought it was dreadful.”
So that takes some unpicking to explain. The context is my old manager’s brother is a published author – I am omitting names so I don’t doxx anyone – who provided some intense feedback on a very early version of TUS. Biting, no holds barred, and on the nose, it was some of the most honest feedback anyone ever gave me, and I still go back to read it from time to time to use as a checklist for what to refine in my current works. Do I feel my work no longer presents the flaws listed? Oh it absolutely still does, but I’m getting there. But this line at the end left the most impact. Someone saw a glimmer in my work that made them desperate to help me unearth it. What higher compliment is there than someone giving their time for such altruistic ends?
Speaking of time, it’s 17:06 as I write this, so I have a little over twenty minutes left of the work day. Not bad all in all, and yes target itself was pre-5pm so I’m in a pretty good place. Health wise I am very much not, I couldn’t sleep so good and woke in a lot of discomfort, but with all objectives done super early, I can at least try to rest that off once I get home. On the editing front, TWR is chugging along and starting to take a little more form. I am going to do a pretty significant rewrite of the third and fourth chapters, maybe so far as blending them into one, which would lose me a good thousand words or so but I think will make the book much more gripping for it. It’s not dreadful. And, to quote the second best compliment I ever received, it is:
“A good start.”
samshuttleworth.com 