Making my wife cry again.

I'm a monster.  I try to make Linda cry.

I have a huge advantage as a writer.

Linda listens to each chapter as they emerge. By reading out loud to her I catch mistakes, she catches mistakes, but most of all I can see her reaction.

I trust her judgment completely. So when she says it's great, I've done something good. If she says it's good, I'm probably still OK. If she scrunches her nose and says, it's OK.  Well, probably have a problem

When I write what I hope is an emotional chapter, I'm hoping to get a reaction from her.

I read her what I hoped was a sad chapter last night, and sure enough she teared up.

Success!  I made her cry again! 

I was a little surprised to feel some tingles myself, which is even rarer. In fact, I think it's only happened once before. So that chapter probably works.

Less is more. I did it all obliquely, and therefore it was more successful. A well crafted chapter, by god.

All I ask if for one of those every once in awhile and maybe someday I'll string a whole bunch of them together and maybe one day every chapter in the book will be that way.