Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Working with an editor!

     Big news! I've taken the plunge and submitted my book to a professional editor, who as we speak is engaged in the long-overdue task of tearing the text into a hundred pieces, such that something Phoenix-like might emerge from the ashes.
     For as long as authors have put pen to paper, the human ego has made a fine dance of the feedback process. I, for one, have always prided myself on my receptivity to constructive criticism, but when it comes to entire scenes and chapters being slashed, I start having difficulty keeping my pulse down.
     Tough.
     Anyone who writes without readers in mind, but still expects his or her work to be read, is engaging in one of the world's most meaningless exercises, and chances are, the passages that authors find most emotionally resonant in their own work are those with which they have a personal relationship - a relationship in which the reader plays no part. As such, the slashing pen of an editor is a crucial investment, and well though I might mourn that which ends up on the cutting room floor, what remains, and what I write thereafter, will have have total devotion and fidelity to the reader. A trade-up, to be sure.
     On a closely-related note, I have, of my own volition, thrown out the first chapter of the book and written something new. It poses a much more plausible context for the protagonists to meet, one that doesn't require Abida, the female lead, to place herself in any perilous situations, and that allows for some of the novel's central themes to arise through situation, rather than forced dialogue. Chapters 1-6, clickable to the right, now reflect this change.
     Faulkner, a major inspiration for my writing of the novel, famously remarked, "In writing, you must kill your darlings."
     Or, as a fellow blogger said, adopting an approach that is less murderer, more drill-sergeant, "Perhaps ‘just mess your darlings up a bit until they fall into line and serve the story properly."
     I'll keep everyone posted as my darlings either bite the dust or learn to behave!