The Importance of a GOOD Editor

AuthorConfession #35

I make friends on Twitter or other places with other authors who self-publish. There is a risk involved with this. Not like a stalkery kind of risk that they take over your identity or rob your house, but all self-published authors have to make a decision about editing, to do it themselves, or to get someone else to do it. As a writer, I want to support them, but when their published book downright NEEDS a real editor and is very hard to read from the first paragraph, I cannot honestly support their work.

Beta readers who are HONEST and authors who can take CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM are essential to this process. Nothing kills your fans like a product that doesn't live up to all your hype. "Buy my book! Here's a sneak peek!" and the sneak peek sucks because the author didn't get anyone good to read it; that's a real bummer.



It's like a bad blind date.

If the character is human, then not human, then magical, then can see behind their head, then I'm inside their head, but their thoughts would be better explained by an omniscient narrator, but the author prefers paragraphs of italics filled with questions that are telling and not showing the reader...INHALE, then I'm not going to read past the first page. I'm certainly not going to buy it.

I'm gonna leave before the main course by sneaking out the bathroom window.

Not that my own works are all quality. All of my free stuff hasn't been edited by a GOOD editor. As I learn, I go back and edit myself. I'm much better now than 10 years ago. I republished and updated two old works this summer. I am not immune to mistakes.



Unedited authors learn slower. Join Critique Circle and help authors learn. If you are writing and need beta readers, join Critique Circle.

Pay for an editor if you can. Don't let your friends edit your works who don't read a lot, or don't write as much as you do. They will think you are a god or goddess of the typewriter and will only tell you you are awesome and never tell you that you suck.

David Lodge says he doesn't listen to academic criticism, "designed to exert the critic’s mastery over the text." Yeah, you don't HAVE to listen to all critics, but you DO have to listen to some of them. You are not superior to all others, but you do have the right to not listen to them and to not change parts of your story that you feel work, or bring your books to the 21st century, or whatever you tell yourself. Don't let them kill your voice. But do let them help you grow.

Compromise with yourself and your critics.


Lastly, I made up that Author Confessions number. Perhaps I should edit it and make it number 1 and do a series...  I realize that the hashtag author confession is a real thing with a calendar of topics for the month. Yeah, I'm not part of that. This is just me and my thoughts.

I've Been Reading More Alice..

In keeping up with the Alice in Wonderland theme, I've been reading a series by Frank Beddor.
This trilogy is called the Looking Glass Wars.

In it, Alyss Heart comes to reign, but is thwarted by Redd. There is a war. The top soldier for Alyss is Hatter Matigan. The top soldier for Redd is The Cat, who is half cat and half Wonderlander.

This series is full of action and adventure. The characters are intriguing and totally re-imagined.
It does get a bit chaotic at times. In Arch Enemy, each chapter jumps from character point of view to character point of view. This is fine since they are all over the map geographically and many things are going on in each of their heads. When you put a book down and go back later to pick it up, it is hard to remember what is going on when you begin with a different character each time. Not that this is a bad thing, because I've written and read many things this way, but that it can be jarring.

Frank goes on to write a graphic novel series around this warrior Hatter.

I'd love to get my hands on these, but they are hard to find. Go Amazon! Now you know one thing to get me for Christmas.

Or these...

And yes, I know these are from the 1st movie.

These are from the second..

But of these, I really only would like the rabbit. I like the costumes more in the first set.

Hee.

What I've Been Reading

A large part of being a good writer is being a good reader. We wouldn't want to write stories if we weren't in love with stories!

One of the perks of being a teacher is that I get to share my love of reading with my students. We read Lord of the Flies recently. I did skip a little bit of the pig killing part and instead of "sucks to your ass-mar" I said "Stinks to your asthma!" My students are 14-15 years old and boys. They loved it! They understood the breakdown of the society into tribes, bullying, the need for both meat and fire, and we talked about how heat can make you hallucinate. They drew maps of the island. We made a pig's head pinata and named her Lulu.

It was great fun. My students have special needs and had never made anything with paper maché before. They chose not to fill her with candy and break her. She is now our classroom mascot.

I've also read the Splintered series by A. G. Howard. @aghowardwrites on Twitter

This is a twist on Alice in Wonderland. I've been in a Wonderland mood lately. I even used Christmas money to order a mug.

My next series is Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor. @frankbeddor on Twitter

My stack of 'To Read' books is large. I probably won't get to them until summer.

What is my class reading next? Number the Stars

Did we do The Giver? You betcha.

What are you reading?