What was the most inspiring feedback you received from readers, including agents, editors, and beta readers?

Insecure Writers Want to Know

I have been blessed with quite a few great reviews for my college memoir, Determination: A Mother of Five Conquers College. Today, May 5, 2026, in fact, is my first book’s one-year anniversary. Thank you to all who have reviewed my memoir.

While looking to answer IWSG’s question about inspiring feedback, I tried to choose only one succinct line from all my reviews. Here is a line from Stephen’s review:

“The book’s deep authenticity strikes the reader in the heart.”

This is all any writer can hope for. To reach a reader in his or her heart with our story. Our writing, whether fiction, memoir, or nonfiction, needs to connect with readers. And to connect deeply, the story, the subject material, needs to tell an emotional journey.  

I’m not speaking about an overly dramatic telling here. I’m talking about a journey with an internal and external problem that touches on the emotions. The story must show why what is happening in the plot matters to the main character, the protagonist. Why is what’s happening in the writing so important to the characters? Why does it touch them on an emotional level? And in a nonfiction book, why does the subject material matter to the reader?

Is it easy to get that internal tension, why it matters to a character, and the external plot problem, what’s happening on the outside in a story? That tension in memoir? The interest of nonfiction readers in an important subject?

Absolutely not! That’s why creating essays or stories is so difficult. We need to make sure the important elements to engage our readers are present in our writing. For me, I need to revise after first creating the story or nonfiction piece to be sure I have that internal external tension in the writing. And then revise again. And sometimes, too many revisions for my liking.

As always, I am open to any suggestions you may have on how to create engaging prose that touches our readers’ hearts.  

Now I’m off to see what inspiring feedback YOU received on your writing from readers, editors, or agents. Happy IWSG Day, everyone!    

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This post was written for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. I’d like to thank our co-hosts for May: are Jenni Enzor, Jemima Pett, Jamie of Uniquely Maladjusted but Fun, and Kim Lajevardi!

Please visit them if you can.    

Our group posts on the first Wednesday of every month. To join us, or learn more about the group, click HERE.