I have a confession.
I hold tightly to my words. Letting go of them is no easy thing.
But that’s exactly what I’ve had to do this past week as I’ve worked through line-edits.
I have another confession.
Of all the things that lay ahead as a contracted author, line-edits made me the most nervous.
Here’s my truth. I’m in love with words. I love stringing them together in creative and clever ways to paint pictures for the reader. I don’t like deleting them. And I’m super protective of my voice.
So the idea of line-editing scared me.
I admitted all this to my incredibly talented line-editor, Lissa Johnson, and she said it’s a common malady for writers, especially beginners. Which makes sense if you think about parenting. We tend to be much more uptight with our first born, don’t we?
So how did line-edits go? Did I have to get rid of words I wanted to keep? Does the writing still sound like me? Was it as painful as I feared? Is the story better?
Good. Yes. Yes. Yes (but not in the way I expected). Very much.
Allow me to elaborate….
I deleted words I wanted to keep.
This is a reality for line-editing. I had to delete some of my more creative descriptions. One of the things I loved about Lissa was that she didn’t just tell me to delete them. She explained why they weren’t working.
Descriptions shouldn’t pull the reader from the story. Not even for the sake of admiring the prose. We can get away with it on occasion, but the more often we do it, the more we risk creating a choppy read for our audience. And choppy’s never good.
I’m learning that subtle and simple is usually best. A hard lesson for a writer who tends to go purple.
My voice is still my voice.
Lissa suggested changes, and even made changes, but she did so in my voice. She stayed true to who I am on the page and put to rest my biggest fear: That by the time this story makes it to the shelf, it will no longer sound like me.
Line-editing is painful.
Yes, it is. But not for the reasons I expected.
Deleting a beloved description wasn’t the painful part.
Having to scrutinize a novel I didn’t want to scrutinize was.
I had to look at so many of my words and make sure they meant what I wanted them to say. I had to look at so many of my details and make sure they were accurate and well-researched.
And I had to do it all while wanting to chuck the story out the window. At this point, I’ve edited this thing more times than I can count.
Combing through it so meticulously yet again made me cross-eyed. My lovely editor, Shannon Marchese, assured me that my strong feelings of dislike toward my story were very normal.
The pain is worth it.
Saying goodbye to some of my words was hard. But after stepping back, I discovered that Lissa was usually right. The changes improved the story. And although I might be permanently cross-eyed, it’s now much cleaner. Much smoother. Much better.
I’m learning something I always suspected. Editors are amazing. At least the good ones are.
And when it comes to editing, we’re wise to ignore those feelings of defensiveness, embrace some humility, and trust that they know what they’re doing.
Chances are, they’ve been doing it a lot longer than we have.
Let’s Talk: What scares you most about getting a book ready for publication? What excites you the most?
Letting individual words go, no problem. Entire chapters and sections–big problem!
Katie, thanks for sharing your experience. I enjoy revisions, but, as I said on Jody's blog, I know that what I consider my final one, won't be final at all from an editor's perspective. I think having a good working relationship with one's agent and editor–real trust–will be invaluable, and I look forward to having that for myself someday.
Formatting scares me the most! I'm under contract with an epublisher and working on getting my formatting just right before going in and editing is a tedious process.
I'm most excited about my editor's suggestions! I can't wait to get them. I love having another pair of eyes on my work and the more creative juices, the better.
Rosslyn – you bring up SUCH an excellent point! Which is that editors are awesome, but not perfect. And there may be things we need to push back on and like you, it's been my experience that they are completely willing to listen and have a dialogue and work together as a team to make the story the best it can be. 🙂
Katie, thanks for the look at your process! I'm so glad you were happy with your results.
At the same time that I have been reassured by the talent and discernment of my editors, it's also important for writers to be realistic and confident in the process. One thing I love about my editors is that they are open. For example, in a recent last minute line-edit of one chapter, I thought my editor's changes were great and implemented all but one that I wanted to keep as the original sentence. She was totally understanding about my reason, and so the line stayed in its original form. Now, had I wanted something really clunky or foolish to stay, I'm sure she would have explained to me why that was not a good idea. So, in the end, it's about having a friendly, intelligent discussion with our editors, and really considering what they say, but also knowing that they're OK with hearing our thoughts in ambiguous cases when an edit could go one way or the other.
Hey Katie, I'm facing my own first-timer batch of line edits later this month, and I'm terrified of the same things that worried you. I'm so glad you feel like the edits made your story stronger rather than hurt it.
We'll have to see what my line editor says about my descriptions. I tend toward the purple prose side of things as well. 🙂
Thanks so much for your reassuring words about a tough stage in the writing process. My biggest concern was also one of yours – that my story would no longer be in my voice. It's so nice to hear that the editors take that into account. Thank God for wonderful editors! And thanks for this great post, Katie.
I LOVE hearing about your journey! Seriously, it is so cool to read about what you are up to and how you are feeling about it.
I cannot wait to read your story!
You're already at line edits? Weren't you doing edits just last week? 😉 That must be one polished story, girl. I went through 8-10 rounds of edits for a measly 15,000 words. It was challenging, but I'm pleased with the results.
I love hearing other writers' stories.
Katie, I'm so glad your edits went well and that you've been blessed with editors who show such respect for you as a writer. What a gift.
I hope you did something special to celebrate surviving your first edits as a contracted author.
Unknowns scare me most. Once I understand a challenge, and get over the shock, I start to strategize and get enthused about completing the task to the best of my ability. So… I'm glad you're posting about your journey through this whole book publishing thing the first time through. It takes the edge of all these unknowns.
"The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it."
~Thucydides
Katie,
Thank you so much for your posts! I love your blog and get very excited when I see you have a new post!
My biggest fear about publishing my work is the editing! I am also very protective over my work and I am afraid I will get defensive when I land an agent. It all makes sense to me and I want it to make sense to everyone else, too. =)
Thank you for posting!
Great post, Katie! I totally get the part about editing until we hate our novel. I've got more edits in store after meeting my agent last week, and I keep wondering which round will be the last. Apparently I won't see the end of edits for a while… 🙂
This post made me laugh–in a good way. See, I have this CP who has forced me to make changes that have turned into line-edits on my manuscript, one I have now edited more times than I can count. And yet I know I'll have to do it all again when it's under contract! Sigh. It's a good thing I love my CP. 🙂
Line0editing is a pain, you're right; the pain is worth it!!!! Great post. I'm so glad I'm not the only one who goes cross-eyed!
What scares me most? That I will miss something. OK, the reality is, there is a typo (or two) in every book. I've heard it said that an author shouldn't read her book once it's in print for this very reason. Hhhm.
I want my book to be as clean as possible. I will do whatever I can to make it so, including read it until I'm sick of it.
Then I have to let it go. Literally.
When it comes to line editing I have usually gone totally cold on my book and I'm starting to hate the sight of any words from it! By the time I get to line edits I have revised and re-written a number of times to get the plot and characters just right so line editing is a big chore for me!
Content edits are always my big one. Line edits usually go pretty well for me, though I'm sure the day is coming. 🙂
Glad you go through these.
You know, Georgiana Daniels started a support group for authors called WADs. Word Attachment Disorder. 🙂 I'm a card carrying charter member.
Good advice Katie.
I think the "I'm learning that subtle and simple is usually best" is something I am still trying to learn with blogging. I have lots of room for improvement.
Like you, I've found that when I open myself up to requested changes, the text is nearly always better. 🙂
By the way, you may already know this, but you're on GalleyCat today:
http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/three-elements-of-a-great-title_b36911
Whatever step I'm in is the one that scares me most! Waiting for submission responses. Waiting to hear that the editor is not sorry she contracted this dreadful dreck! Waiting to see how answers to publisher questions will morph into cover and catalog copy. Even after contract, the publishing journey has many periods of waiting, and if I let the voice in my head talk too much, it's nervewracking!
I'm scared of it all, but that won't stop me! 🙂 Thanks for the encouragement.
Right now, I'm scared that I'll never get there. Boy, this is a long, hard journey! Thanks for your encouragement. 🙂
Right now, I'm scared that I'll never get there. Boy, this is a long, hard journey! Thanks for your encouragement. 🙂
Nice post! I can't relate to being a writer with a book being published. But i know how i felt when i was having my thesis reviewed! The excitement came from knowing that soon many people would get to read the way i put my thoughts and ideas together. The scariest parts were whenever i had my chapter reviews!
I'm so glad you write these posts about your journey. They're so encouraging to us who haven't yet walked there.
The picture of the little boy is hilarious.
I think what scares me the most is what Jody posted about, that people will hate it, that I didn't do a good job writing/editing it, etc.
What excites me the most? Building a career doing this, love it and think it will be the best job ever. 🙂