Lessons learned from readers

Mar 15, 2013

After the glorious hullabaloo of The Shore Girl book launch and road trip, my world has gone back to its new normal. It’s been six months to the day since The Shore Girl made its debut. That’s a whole lot of firsts for me. First book signings, first reviews, first interviews, first book clubs and Q&As. It’s been readers who have surprized me the most.

Before selling this book, I’d worked hard to develop my craft, focusing on writerly stuff like sentence construction, decent dialogue, smooth transitions, metaphors, and character descriptions. I’ve spent years – okay decades – with my head stuck in the writers’ sandbox, toiling away at what I thought summed up a book.

Readers have since set me straight. Of course crisp language helps, but it is story that matters most. And readers have emotionally connected with Rebee’s story in ways I couldn’t have imagined. During book club discussions, people have vehemently defended or condemned the characters in Rebee’s life as if they are real to them. We’ve had heated debates about what is lost – and gained – as children get yanked from place to place. One woman said her family had moved 27 times before she entered high school, and she was more resilient for it, if not as trusting. Another woman quietly took me aside and confided, “You have written my childhood. It’s all there, my life, my mother.” She was adamant that Rebee could thrive, and she wanted me to know this, her own life case in point.

It’s been humbling to discover that Rebee’s story doesn’t belong to me anymore. Perhaps it never did. And as I toil away on book two, it is story, not writing technique, that I’m concentrating on. Thank you, dear readers, for reminding me of what is important. 

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