As I struggle to write — I’m pretty sure I’ve never had writer’s block worse than I have in the months since I published The Jump — every once in a while I get a little positive bump that reminds me I need to figure this out.

This weekend it was from a friend who started reading The Jump. Here is what he had to say:

“By the way, you kept me up past my bedtime last night. As I crawled into bed I noticed The Jump sitting in a pile of books and started reading it. Couldn’t put it down. I love the setting, of course. Lots of images of Omaha and Council Bluffs as I read it. Your description of Weston’s first speech is wonderfully described. I felt like I was watching it on YouTube. I’m also impressed by how you tell the story by alternating between the present and the past. It takes, I think, a very good writer to do that as seamlessly as you’re doing it so far in this book. It’s a complicated process when I think about how much information you’ve given the reader by the time we find out what led to the mother’s suicide, because we also learn at the same time where the dad has gone and why the son is suicidal, etc.

“Another aspect of your writing I admire is your character development. I like writers who are able to form quick but deep sketches of characters, both minor and main. There are multiple ways of doing that well – dialogue, actions, physical descriptions, little details. I think you’re especially strong in the first two and the last one. I guess one sign of your skill as a writer is that I don’t notice what you’re doing unless I think about it. I think, Mark, you are honing your craft the more you write.”

So … if you haven’t already and want to see what that’s all about …