We writers can be pretty headstrong. We’re adamant about our work, and are always prepared to defend it, right down to the last punctuation mark. I remember annoying the hell out of my editor at Kensington when, pissed off at what I thought was a crappy edit, I flew into a fit of high dudgeon, stetted about fifty of the line editor’s changes, and Fed Exed about 30% of my novel back. Just weeks before printing.
Nobody was to tell me how to write my book!
My editor was not amused. “I got your many changes,” she told me dryly thereafter. I felt a bit abashed then, and as I became more experienced, I realised I was damn lucky she didn’t fire me on the spot. I was damn rude and out of line. Not to mention arrogant, stubborn, and ign’ant.
Now that the metaphorical shoe is on the other figurative foot, and I find myself in the editor’s chair, I encounter writers who, kill them dread, refuse to listen to reason. It’s their book, I don’t know anything, and they’re going to do it their way.
Well, sure. It is your book, after all. You don’t have to change a damn thing. You don’t have to listen to a word I say—as long as you still pay me, sis.
But consider this: Your editor is someone who has been through the wringer herself, who has been there, who has had her work praised and scorned, and who has survived. She’s grey of hair (well, except for the Revlon) and long of tooth. Maybe she knows what she’s talking about.
So I know that being told that you need to fix your story—or, in extreme cases, that it sucks and you need to start over—can sting. It can hurt like a mofo, like someone telling you your baby’s ugly. And you love the hairy little bugger.
But if you love it so much, why not do all you can to make it the best it can be? Instead of seeing your editor’s comments as proof that you’re a terrible person, a bad writer, and a sub-par human being who deserves to be dragged into the orca pool at Sea World, why not try to see it her way? Why not have another go, this time, on her terms?
After all, our primary interest is to make your story better. And we can help you do it, if only you and your ego can get out of your own way.
Any bad editor stories? Share them here. (Good ones, too.)
