When you ask for help, you have to listen.

Today I finished the second book in the Gator McBumpypants picture book series, Gator McBumpypants in Herman Learns to Fly. I thought it would come together more quickly and easily than the first book since I was ready for the formatting, but it ended up being about equally difficult because I was much more critical. Once I had the pdf ready to send off to createspace, I stopped myself: Since I was too impatient to step back for the time it would take to come at it with fresh eyes, I sent it off to two people I knew would give me the honest feedback I needed, a writer (who my writing group lovingly calls the comma police) and an artist (who sees the shapes in the empty space).

I admit I wasn’t completely surprised when I was told that the word angries isn’t a word. I like to make up words or use words in unexpected ways and we had already discussed it in writing group. I was a little surprised that it was the Artist who told me it stopped the flow of the writing and needed to be changed. The same artist who made an eight foot portrait of me called “Maria fights the Robot Spiders” (an obvious representation of my inner two-headed boob dinosaur), told me I needed to stay within the norms of word usage. So, after being only so slightly disappointed, I listened.

Then the feedback from The Writer: I believe I’ve mentioned I am the luckiest girl in the world. I called her worried that she plainly didn’t like it and didn’t want to tell me. No, she was coming up with wonderful changes for every other page by paragraph and sentence. One would think I might be disappointed by my imperfections, but I’m not: I’m  excited to know someone as mindful of good writing as I am that I can trust to find my flaws and be honest with me.

That is the main issue of wanting to share your work with the world; you have to be willing to ask for feedback AND listen to it, if you want to make your best work.