I love my Editor
Last week, my lovely editor, Casey, sent the edits through for Tilda and the Dragons of Nargan. I always receive an edit from BInk with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, because I know there will be things to change, but I have no idea how much/little needs doing, or how much work I need to do as a result.
Over the years that BInk have been publishing my books, I like to think that Casey and I have a good author/editor working relationship. I’ve certainly got to the point where I trust her enough to make pretty much all of the changes she suggests in an edit, but I also know that she will respect my decision when sometimes I say ‘nope, I’d like to keep that bit as it is.’ The latter happens only a few times in each manuscript, because Casey Knows Her Stuff! And I, I have to say, often don’t, which is why I’ve been cured of exclamationmarkitis, been introduced to different lengths of hyphens and where they should sit within a sentence depending on their use, and have learnt all sorts of other important technical stuff!
Anyway, back to the current edit. I skim read it, as I always do when it first comes in, to get an idea of what I need to address, and it was the first time in a long time that I had a really visceral, gut reaction to some of the issues raised in the edit. The last time I felt something so strong was when I received my first ever critique on what ultimately became StarMark (Then, I stopped writing for about a year…) There is a difference between edit and critique, but sometimes you have to critique in order to justify the edit.
I got angry. Of course my character's not one dimensional! She’s very important! I’m good at building worlds! That scene works fine without more detail. No, that change you suggested completely alters what I was trying to say - you’ve made it worse! Why has this format change been introduced when I thought we did it differently last time? I even vented off to an author friend… Casey’s ears must’ve been burning.
Then I shut the computer down and went to bed.
I looked at it again the next morning, in the cold light of day. Well, in about 25 degrees C actually, which is the lowest temperature we can maintain inside the house during the current UK heatwave. And that’s when I realised how unfair I’d been in my gut reaction, hitting out at Casey. I had been tired and irritable through lack of sleep when I did the skim read, and as a result I’d mis-read some of the tracked changes and confused myself. I’d also reacted straightaway, rather than give myself the time to think about things.
Because remember I said Casey Knows Her Stuff? All her comments in this edit are absolutely, perfectly, justified. She has done her job, and pointed out where I, as the author, have actually been quite lazy. I either hadn’t written the scene well enough to be understood (so of course her suggestions changed what I’d intended the scene to portray), or I had skimped on detail and hadn’t fleshed out the setting or the character. And to be honest, approaching the edit a little more rationally makes me realise that I am full of respect for Casey, because she has the guts to call me out on my lazy writing and has challenged me to step up, improve things, and produce the kind of writing she knows I’m capable of.
Having such an extreme reaction to an edit has reminded me that;
However experienced you are regarding the editing process, there will still be times when you really don’t like the feedback you’ve been given. (Possibly because you know in your heart it’s right?)
Don’t respond to feedback or try editing anything until you’ve cooled off and can approach the job in hand more rationally.
Trust your editor, and own up when you’ve been lazy, because an editor wants your writing to be the best you can make it. They don’t suggest any change if you don’t need it.
So… it is a chastened Squidge who will begin working in earnest next week on the Tilda #4 edits…
In the meantime, here are some pictures from a fabulous Pop-Up Book Festival I attended yesterday in the stunning Palace Gardens at Southwell Minster.
It was a very hot day to be outside, but we had the shade of the trees for much of the day, and managed to rig up a curtain of sorts for our gazebo (the little white one in the middle) as the sun moved round. And it was only when sitting behind my books that I realised BInk have been very clever with the stars on the back of the covers. Can you spot what they’ve done…?
And yes, I do have mini bookstacks for ear rings.