An Epiphany!

I was taking my daughter down to Pueblo this weekend to spend the night (her not me). And she was reading a book on the way down and wasn't present on the way up so I had a lot of time to think. I realized that a writing group is not only to give you advice and opinions on how they think your story is going. It is also to push you to really think out why you want your story to go in a certain direction. And that direction may be contrary to the way everyone in the group thinks it should go. But in the end you have darn good reasons for what you're doing. This is a very familiar place for me. I know lots about politics and religion because every member of my family disagrees with me on it. My disagreement started out, when I was young, as instinctual but got a lot sharper and better reasoned so that I could stand up against them.
Maybe you take your readers on a similiar journey. They may not like where you take them but if you can show them you have darn good reasons for taking them there, they will accept it. Perhaps shut the book with a slam but not forget it either. Whoever said this writing business would be comfortable?