An homage to editors
I have this blog.
I think I can write. People tell me they like what they’re reading here so my head inflates like a balloon and makes it hard for me to clear some doorways.
Not quite every day something gets entered here, either about the state of the publishing industry, the books I’m working on or some quirky event in my life that might fit. Remember, my only requirement to guest bloggers is that they say the word “book” at least one time in the post, and they’re in.
With this pseudo writer’s practice pad, my blogging action has blossomed into something more audacious.
I am writing a book.
I don’t want to say a lot about the book right now (and I wear an evil eye bracelet to protect me from any ill will wishers) but for some reason, I think I can do this. In fact, pages and pages of writing are flowing out of me in a way that startles me. How the heck do I get the nerve to write a book?
Nerve is something I’ve always had in overabundant supply and combined with some inspiration from God-knows-where, it’s true. It’s real. It’s a book.
I think it’ll be a real book by spring. Stick with me here and you’ll hear more about it.
But the real reason I’m telling you at all about my new project is because as the words flow like honey page after page every morning starting at 6:00 am, I’ve run into the truly difficult part.
Editing.
A REAL editor advised me, after reading a few pages, to not look back for a good while. Keep going forward with my writing and save the cleaning up, the editing for sometime down the road.
I took her advice and experienced writer’s nirvana for 100 pages. It was my goal to begin editing when I reached that place. I’m on page 120 in my writing and am creeping along on page 30 with my red pen.
It’s freakin’ hard! Editing should be the easy part, I thought. How hard could it be to slice, dice, and rearrange some characters on a page?
Very.
Excuse me for my beginner’s arrogance. Now I sit completely humbled by this thing they call editing.
I can’t even place which parts of the process challenge me so. Reading, re-reading, changing a word here and there, deleting an inane paragraph, cutting out the “fat.”
I had no idea that this manuscript repair job took so long. I’m still not quite sure why that is.
What I’m doing is just MY version of editing in order to put my manuscript in a state that won’t embarrass me when I give it back to the real editor. I think it’s only fair to do my own excavation first. Why put her through more than is necessary.
I know, I know. Editors out there (you real ones) are thanking me for this.
In all seriousness, this post is my thanks to all the editors out there who spend most of the hours in their days doing this tedious, meticulous and mind-stretching* job. It’s probably the most important part of book writing and the least appreciated.
I appreciate it and I appreciate all of you editorial types.
Kudos to you and your infinite patience.
May your red pen inscribe you into the literary book of life.
* Mind-stretching was formerly “mind-numbing” and changed due to the comment below. My apologies for using a word choice that was less than respectful. See why I’m not an editor??
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Mind-numbing editing is not. Quite the contrary–when we edit we are delving into the writer’s mind, a place we haven’t been before, and it’s usually quite interesting to see life from another person’s perspective. There’s always something to learn, in the similarities, the differences, and of course in the subject matter. Yes, it’s time consuming to make a book structurally and grammatically sound and appealing, but the bigger challenge is helping the writer express her message in a manner that speaks to the reader on every level. That challenge is what it’s all about.