Too Much of YOU

Soooo, I had the first draft of my book ready (to the left) to be reviewed by two college English professors.

Both, in their feedback, kind of said the same thing but one was much more direct than the other. She said, "Eric, there is too much YOU in the book."

She had inquired before looking my book over whether I wanted her to be straight with her feedback. I said yes. "Lean hard on the book and see if it stands or not."

Well, lean she did. The capitalization of the YOU particularly caused me to wince. After the initial sting wore off, I was very glad that she had the integrity and courage to tell me what she thought. Lina my wife had looked the book over several times and it had passed her editorial muster. Lina typically is very direct with me when she has an observation. So, I was hoping for two thumbs up from the Profs.

In theory, that is why I had asked her and the other college English professor to look the book over. In practice, when she told me, I had to fight defensiveness in my spirit. It was sort of similar to when my Dissertation Committee told me that in order to get my Ph.D. I had to cut out a lot of the existing Dissertation--I went from 260 pages to around 170--and boil it down to a leaner and cleaner document.

I faced a choice. Either fight them because I believed that the writing could not be truncated and had to stand Canon-like as it was and be ADB (All But Dissertation, a limbo land of the almost but not quite) OR I had better get chopping because time was running late. So, I chopped words like Benihana chops food. It was actually a great experience. My writing lost its gut and the abs of words now rippled.

Where the blind spot existed between Lina and I is that she know me and likes me. My stories about me are interesting to her. What the college professors rightly flagged is that many of my readers of the book will not have a personal connection to me. The college professor on the delivering side knows me, but not real well. We are kind of friends in the making as I know her through my wife who knows her more through her husband. But, she is a great writer and when they got married, there were books everywhere at the ceremony and reception. Just replace the booze and beers and wine with books and you get the idea.

The EDGE book is not to be a Biography (there may come a time where I can write that and people will want to read it, but not now). It is about THEM, the STUDENTS. I want my book to rock and to help a multitude succeed in college. It has been my passion for twenty years now, ever since I worked with college freshman at Millersville University in Grad School and saw how woefully unprepared many of them were, academically and otherwise, for the collegiate experience. Little has changed either in terms of my concerns or passion since then.

On Saturday, I purged much of the self-referential elements out of my book...and instead tried to broaden the stories and take myself out of the picture. More like being the photographer rather than the one being the object of the photo. I think it is a much better book as a result. From 80 to 40 pages. LEANER. Thanks Tim and West!