Feedback and a sense of nearing the end

69. Monday 27 April 2026

I had a lovely break with my mum. We visited lots of places, including staying a night in Ayr. The weather was lovely and sunny and it was good to keep away from my book. Today, I reread the first three chapters, then had a long video chat with Chris W. His feedback was way more useful than I think he could imagine. We don’t know each other well and he knew only what I’d sent him in advance, namely the two-liner and the title. I’d asked if he could read only chapters 1 to 3 and give me his thoughts. It turns out, he’s a great critic. His perspective is also very different to mine and to Chris G and Narissa. He pointed out a few things that I had not thought about at all.

                For example, he works in IT and has a tech mind. He pointed out that my character Sadie has a high tech CCTV system in her house and yet he wondered why she wrote a note to her boyfriend and didn’t have a smartphone, so is also low tech. He made me realise that her high tech security system isn’t monitored. Or at least, it hasn’t occurred to me that she might monitor it from a smartphone (no) or from a laptop. I hadn’t thought of that (there’s more to it than I just outlined), but it’s something I can fairly easily address.

                He also pointed out that he saw “Ab” and wasn’t sure what it meant, whether it was a name and, if so, male or female. I know it comes from the name Abhishek and that he is male. I added “boyfriend” before his name – easily solved.

                Having readers, and not just people you know really well, is more useful and insightful than I could ever have imagined possible.

                I also loved having another opportunity to talk about my book and my characters and it was very satisfying that he made a few observations that were points I’d hoped a reader would notice.

                This afternoon, I made amendments to the first three chapters based on his feedback and I’ve started rereading it all again. I have also worked on my synopses (500, 400 and 300 words) and two-liner. I’m now happy with the two-liner. The synopsis is okay but I think I can make that better.

In other news, it was on/off sunny, my washing dried outdoors, I had a walk, I sat on the bench "up top" and drank a glass of wine and saw a rainbow, I started another sourdough loaf and tidied the house a bit ahead of a likely short trip to London from Wednesday.