Recently,
I listened to my editor agree with a panel of two other editors that it was
sometimes just one wonderful sentence that caused them to fall in love with a
book. Next day I asked her which
sentence it was of Dying to Go Viral so that I would be certain that I
didn’t take it out.
She
hesitated. Not a good sign. We had been
working full out on a substantive edit.
(This is the major first edit that focuses the vision of your story.)
and there had been extensive rewriting so there was that danger of destroying
this one glorious, if imaginary, sentence. Maybe also I was just being a needy
author in search of a compliment. Finally, to let her off the hook, I suggested that it was the premise : a 14 year-old girl gets a one week do over
of her last week of life. She agreed quickly.
What I
have learned about the editing process is that when the revision suggestions
come in most writers’ first response is overly emotional because they’re
overwhelmed with a sense of inadequacy.
“I’ll never be able to achieve all the editor’s asked of me. I don’t even know where to begin.”
Best
advice, think on it for a few days. Go
into a dark room, put a blanket over your head and weep,
if you must. But don’t call the editor
to vent until you’ve really thought the suggestions over.
“If you
know so much about how this book should be written, why don’t you do it
yourself?” was one author’s reaction.
“If you thought so much was wrong with the story, why the heck did you
buy it?”was another.
As you’re
weeping in your dark space, you may find you suddenly think of a solution to
one of the problems suggested in the rewrite notice. You’re anxious to try to
see if this turn works. Suddenly excitement takes over your inadequacy. Next
thing you know, the new bit added to show character development is your
favourite scene . Then you’re on to the
next problem. Sentence by sentence,
chapter by chapter, you end up rewriting your book and it’s better for it. One writer I know says she loves the
to-and-from teamwork between her and
someone else so intimately connected with her story.
Editors,
I have a suggestion too. Just
compliment the writer . Then she won’t have to fish and maybe the time in the
dark space will be shorter.
To learn more about Sylvia McNicoll's author journey, please visit her website.
