I’ve been doing a little editing this morning. Tinkering with structure and content, adding, removing, moving words around until I have them just where I want them. Where they can make the maximum impact, allowing the characters and story to pop off the page like popcorn from the pan. Edging ever nearer the perfect sentence, the slippery fish that always seems to wriggle out of my grasp at the very last moment.
It’s a tedious but necessary process. Akin to chipping away at a formless block of marble, hopeful that a masterpiece lies within, awaiting your skilled hands to reveal it. At the time, editing can seem pointless and unnecessary, a real drag. It is a deeply unglamorous process, about as far removed from the stereotypical image of the passionate, spontaneous writer. It takes patience and perseverance.
But that’s how you improve, that’s how you get better. It can feel like one step forward and three steps back but writing a book is like that, a war of attrition where every tiny victory comes at a cost. Walk into any bookshop and cast an eye around the thousands of titles on the shelves, vying for your attention. Every one of them, famous classic or little read potboiler, was a work of passion, a project that consumed its creator from start to finish.
We might not be everybody’s cup of tea, but anyone who sets out to write a book deserves our respect for undertaking such an arduous challenge. Anyone who succeeds in completing one and then seeing it through to actual publication is already a hero in my eyes, even if it never sells a copy. Those who mock or ignore are many but it’s so much easier to destroy than it is to construct. Writers deserve so much more.
Absolutely! I was in several bookshops today reminding myself of the very things you have covered in this post, marvelling at how many titles there are, and looking for those familiar names and whether there was something different in the offing. And I am enjoying very much the world you have created around young Kirkwood.
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Thank you Sean. Keep reading. Kirkwood appreciates your support 🙂
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Well put Stephen -there’s a big difference between the compulsion to write and the final draft, but that is precisely the work element which improves the writer. What I find difficult is the ra-ra process of advertising myself in the publication phase as I’m sure many other writers also do.
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Yes, Tony. I agree. It’s a very frustrating & draining process 😐
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Agreed. I true fear I have is having no one bother to read my work.
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A* true fear
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I share that fear, Heather 😐
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I appreciate you!
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Thank you 😊
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Well, I *was* going to mock all of the metaphors you included, but that would be a Chelsea throwing tomatoes at the one person trying to make a serious salad!
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Amen!
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Thank you Carol 🙂
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You’re most welcome, Stephen.
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Amen! I don’t make a point of telling people I’ve written books, after getting a few thinly veiled “I’m sure you have, dear.” But I have received some compliments like “I just read your book … i-it was really good!” and I don’t know whether to take it as a compliment, or be insulted at how surprised they sound that I actually could have done a good job. (*eye roll*)
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I know that feeling. The indifference of some supposed friends has hurt me in the past. The support from the online community has been much greater at times.
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I agree with you. The more you write the better you will be at it. 🙂
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Most definitely.
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The thing that makes a writer a writer is exactly what you’ve said here: they write. Not that they sell books. Not that they become famous. Not that they write a particular genre or for a.particular audience. Tulle one simple fact that they write is enough.
And as Neil Gaiman says: finish things!
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Wise words, Hamish. Thank you 😊
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