The Terror of Editors
Sometimes I forget that being a writer means that, inevitably, people are going to actually read what I’m writing. The last few weeks I’ve been working through the final draft edits for The Light Keeper, which has meant many rounds of what’s called “beta edits” (i.e. editing). I’m lucky to have many generous, brilliant friends who took the time out of their busy lives to be advanced readers for the novella. They patiently engaged in debates with me over whether a crab “tunneled” or “burrowed” under the sand (before I finally just nixed the troublesome line altogether) or the levels of anachronism involved in wine glass technology.
The fact of the matter is that most of the time, those three seconds after I click “send” on the email that shares the draft of The Light Keeper to my editors, I feel a stutter of absolute panic in my heart. There’s no shortage of worries that cycle through my mind; what if they hate it? What if they decide that I’m not actually that good of a writer? What if the story bores them? But the document has been sent; it’s out of my hands. So I open the shared document and watch their icons slowly move down the page. I close the document and walk away, only to come back and check the comment count. Are they making a note of a spelling error? Are they telling me that a particular paragraph makes no sense? Or are they granting me the holy grail of gifts; a compliment about something that they enjoyed?
In the end, it really doesn’t matter. The purpose of the feedback isn’t to count the balance of positive comments versus negative comments to determine whether your work is good or not. The whole point of the community endeavor of editing is to help the author of the work become a better writer; to tell a more wonderful, more magical story. I would be a liar if I said that I never felt hurt by an editor’s feedback. It’s an inevitability. But the hurt gets put aside with the recognition that most of the time, the editor is right. And the fabulousness of admitting that and figuring out the next step to fixing the issue is what both empowers you as a writer and improves your writing.
Watching The Light Keeper shift from the first draft to the final has been an eye-opening experience. I can’t believe how much I learned by opening myself up to feedback from so many different readers and listening to their thoughts about the characters, the function of magic and the environment and hearing what questions they had. I was so surprised to see multiple readers fall in love with a side character who appeared for only two paragraphs. To me, it was a placeholder; a way to move another character from one space to another. For them, it was a deeper element of the world and an opportunity to learn more about the setting. So the character was expanded.
It’s been so surprising to me, learning how much of a community effort writing a book is. I thought that by choosing to be an indie author I was picking a lonely road. Instead I’ve found connection in the people who continue to push me to be better, who offer their help and their love of reading and high fantasy and their incredible enthusiasm. Sometimes it might be difficult, but it’s been so worth it and I am so lucky and grateful.
My novella “The Light Keeper” is now available for pre-order on Amazon Kindle! I am so excited to release this small piece of LGBT fantasy fiction as a preview of the greater world of Veridys from my new series that will debut in Spring 2023!
