They don't like me. They really, really don't like me.

Part of the process of writing is hearing back from the people who are your test audience. So far that has reached 8 persons, and it will probably grow over the course of the next couple of weeks, but for now I have received some feedback from two individuals, though one with more intensity. My mom has been the first. Now, she has been the most exposed of the people who have received the story to the genre it ended up being written in: the weird and wacky and ranting style that has dominated "Writer's Company" stories for almost 13 years. My mom has mostly just told me where she has read and some of the minor things she has liked, with highlights in the text to tell me of spelling errors and such (something I have already been working on while reading it myself, but it always helps for a second opinion as I am likely to miss some things in the heat of my reading, and the fact that I am distracted by work).
However, my biggest critic so far has been my roommate Jim, and I am actually rather thankful for his open and honest and lengthy commentary so far. He hasn't really cared for the shift to the silly, and it seems he especially does not care for the rants I went on when it came to what I was going to do in the plot instead of actually doing it, as well as glossing over parts of the story like the Bible study portion (which, he informs me, is in the wrong chapter of Acts for the third week of school, and I have to admit, I totally agree, I just didn't know how I should divide the second chapter to make it feasible for the story, not to mention that at that point I only had about 25 hours until the story was due and I wanted to get to the end with something to show for it). It's good to have this coming to me from the start, since in all honesty the story really was supposed to be a lot more serious than it turned out to be for the most part. I am thankful for the silliness because some aspects of the plot that I hadn't considered have come out of this process. Plus, maybe since I have been writing like this for so long, I really like writing in this way. But I do know that I am going to have to bear down and work this out with these characters (who are used to the silly) and the situation (which deals with more serious themes). Maybe I could string it all together when a lovely musical number. No, wait, that was one of the endings I already wrote, and it ended up depressing. Besides, is there anyone else out there who wishes random people would break out into song and dance in a perfectly choreographed way?