I am fortunate to work with some great editors.
There. I said it.
Many of us are not so lucky. Mine are trusted writers themselves, well-read across multiple genres with years of writing experience in different ways for short stories, books, and even film.
A few also happen to be dear friends from childhood who are honest and blunt when it comes to their opinions. Those are the type of people who know me and my thought processes who can dive into my mind and pull out what I am trying to say and get me to do it right.
I also have a critical reviewer. One who is not shy in saying what she means. Ever.
My beloved wife.
I usually like to keep work and home life separate. COVID changed that. She got to see a writer truly at work, the frantic writing and editing, the research, the sighs as things popped up and faced me head on.
More about her later in another post.
What’s the point of all of this?
Well, I had a great meeting early this week with one of my editors. The feedback, questions, and insight were absolutely invaluable to me. I had been scared to share Pandemic-19 with her.
Say what now?
Yes. I was scared. I worried what she would think about my book. The dilemma every writer faces in handing over their pride and joy for criticism. They are our babies and hearing anything negative eats our souls.
My fear was just my own demon. We sat over video, the way you do things nowadays instead of over coffee and goodies, and dove into Pandemic-19. I have to say outright, I got goosebumps hearing what she told me.
Really?
I don’t lie. Not to you. One of the first things she told me was that she couldn’t read and take notes because she was too engulfed in the story and the plot! She found that trying to take notes and read at the same time when she was loving the book just didn’t work.
So she read it first and then went back and took notes.
That my dear readers and followers, is what you want to hear as a writer.
Now, don’t get me wrong. She had a few things she had commentary on to make the book better. In a nutshell though, she loved it and couldn’t wait for the release. Two hours of feedback and ideas later and I was left with an overwhelming feeling of satisfaction. What I had set out to do reverberated in a reader, because first and foremost, she is, and second, the characters and events resonated with her. She even appreciated the fact, and this was a long conversation, of my inclusivity of characters with disabilities.
That aspect being taken to heart and her knowing why I did that and it came across in a way that meant something is one of the joys of being a writer. I accomplished a goal that is a part of me and my writing journey.
Woo hoo! You go dude!
Thank you. Appreciate the sentiment.
Hold on, wait a second. The title of this blog post has to do with the bane and dislike of editing. Seems all fluffy clouds and lollipops here.
You are right my friends. That is the title. And here is the reason why.
To get to the points above, where Pandemic-19 was handed off to editors to proof and go over with a fine toothed comb, it took me more than 50 rounds of editing myself using my evil scientist methodologies before it was even close to being shared.
With my editors that is.
I shared Pandemic-19 with the world as a #wip as I wrote it. An experiment I talked about in my post https://jason-mcdonald.com/2021/06/24/coming-out-of-the-shell-of-pandemic-19/. So in many ways I got a lot of feedback from the world that assisted the crazy guy as he went about writing the book. Once I was done sharing with the world the very rough draft, I pulled it to the shadows and worked my spells and magic. Hence, the 50 plus edits that occurred there before it went to anyone to proof.
Ah. I think I got it.
Editing is a laborious process. It means doing a lot of work confined in a small space to produce something tangible.
Not like a box chained to the side. That is another book!
No, confined in a mental place to focus and take apart your masterpiece bit by bit in order to digest the words and understand a story from the first word to the last. Writers can be their own worst critics and in a lot of ways, the worst editors in the world. We can miss so much because we know the plot intricately and are the ones writing it.
Our brains fill in the gaps we forget to put on paper. So we miss the mark on occasion.
OK. Seems like then you need an editor from the beginning, right?
Not what I am saying at all. My other profession I was well, a professional editor and writer. Among my many other hats over the years and being an executive. working with top tier organizations and global companies, and even top universities. So, I know a thing or three about editing stuff. Different topics sure, but still using editing techniques and ways that I have used over the years to produce materials.
Editing a book is a process. One that must work for you and you alone. There is no formula for it. Writers are creative minds. We are a bit weird in some respects. Me? I don’t fit any mold. I build things. I ride motorcycles. I love my Harley, but I rebuild all kinds of two-wheeled transportation. My wife says I have too many motorcycles! I’ve rebuilt cars. I garden. I also play sports and am showing my son how to ride a skateboard.
Skate or die!
The point is I am me and have my way of doing things that work.
If you say so.
Editing sucks. There, I said it. It really does. No writer says, “I can’t wait to rip my book apart and edit the hell out of it!” If they do, check their head into an insane asylum. Don’t get me wrong, it can be fun.
Say what?
Fun. You get to tweak, twist, and twirl the plot, characters, and story to make it even better than the first rough draft. As a writer you don’t like doing the editing process, but you do like the writing, the ah ha moments to add some extra flavor and wickedness to your book.
Doing it over and over, repeat and rinse, and then back to it is what drains your life.
It sucks. No other way to say it.
Hmm.
If we were perfect we would get it on the first try. No such luck. We edit time and time again until we think it’s good, and then keep at it. It is a cycle that never ends, because in all honesty, writers always find something after publication they forgot or wished they had included.
We just do the best we can.
That gets us to the point of our story here today. I worked and worked Pandmeic-19 until I felt it was worth a proof. I don’t ever want to hand off crap to someone. I want my work as polished and pristine as it can be, and then make sure it is.
There are always a few boo boos. That’s the part about we writers missing things.
I drove myself mad and giggly going through edits. It caused sleepless nights because I stayed up until the wee hours editing after doing the same during the day. Fresh or in this case tired eyes and brain stepping away to ponder and then come back to snip away and sew together a plot.
Over.
And over.
I won’t even get into the really crazy stuff I did. To say this book opened my eyes is an understatement.
I found a groove and changed some of what I had done for years. Put in place a different mechanism that in my mind, produced a better end product. Small things, like working in the format the book would go to print in made me write and read the story and as a reader would see it.
I did countless edits and saves using double-spaced pages with one inch margins. I have always done that.
When I got close, I wanted to see Pandemic-19 in a different light. Flow is everything. So, I modified and went a different road. To me, it worked wonders. I finished up close to what it would look like in book format.
And that everyone, was the bane of my editing!
It placed a whole new perspective on my writing, because as a reader myself, I saw my book the way it will be when you finally get your hands on it. From the original format to that point, I almost threw it out to start over.
The version I started with changed, and that was a great thing.
I edited even more times. I lost count. What it did, besides drive me batty, was edit and edit for a purpose beyond what I had normally done for my other books. I paid more attention to details. Dialog spoke more forcefully to me. Words had more meaning and I chose them carefully. And transitions became even more critical.
I hated it. And that was all right with me.
What you will get is the result of my ills. A book worthy of reading and entertainment, because that is what it is all about and why I do what I do. To slug through the mud of edits to wash it off and let the gleam of a good book speak to you. So, I’ll keep it up. Use it for my other books being worked on because you deserve it and so do I.
The reward of happiness and the warm fuzzy feeling at the end is worth it.
Jason McDonald 