Editing - or I’m a total moron
So, I’ve been working on my edits for Tempting Fate, for LSB.
First, I have to say that I thought this story was pretty darn good or I wouldn’t have submitted it in the first place.
But…
Then I got the edits.
And that’s when I learned I’m a barely literate fool only pretending to write.
OK, that’s not true, if it were they wouldn’t have bought the book in the first place, but damn, when I open that document and see all of the suggestions/changes, that’s what it feels like. Every time.
And then, I start reading through the changes. They’re absolutly brilliant, they make the story so much better - they change words to be spelled right (d’oh) and I’m back to the - I can’t beleive I thought this was good the first time!
Throughout the ms, my editor has LOTS of changes, some notes to herself, and then occasionally they’re a little “hee” when she finds something funny or a compliment about phrasing or something.
Let me tell you, the high that I get from those little comments - you’d think I just was selling the book again (and yes, perhaps there’s some happy dancing invovled).
So editing for me is like a roller coaster of emotions. One second I can barely string a sentence together, the next I’m on top of the world.
Maybe it’d be better if we writers weren’t such an emotional lot.
April 5th, 2006 at 5:40 pm
Glad your editor threw in some happy notes too. At least you feel like the edits improve the story. Wouldn’t it be so much worse if you thought they were all wrong! :-). Some people say we’re emoitional, some may say… schizophrenic, call it what you like. But how else could we hop into other people’s heads? Gotta do what you gotta do ;-)
April 5th, 2006 at 6:45 pm
Glad you have a good editor. It’s amazing what good editing can do for a book. :)
April 5th, 2006 at 8:43 pm
Emma, I can totally relate to the high you get from the nice comments. I love it when I editor puts smiley faces in certain places :)