Giving Up the Baby

[Peg Herring]

I've heard authors much more famous than I am say it: giving a manuscript to someone else to read is like sending your kid off to her first day of school. It feels like everything you've done for years has come to a climax, and you never feel like you've done enough.

A fellow writer told me yesterday that she's got a three book series with one due to the publisher every nine months. I wonder how I would handle that, since I (at least in my own opinion) need more time than that to judge something I've done as ready. I know there are authors who simply don't meet their deadlines, and if you have the fan base, publishers will wait until you're done. I know there are other authors who let assistants and editors polish their work, and again, if you've got the right people, I suppose that works.

But for me, writing is intensely personal, and I can't see hiring helpers or shortening my natural process. I don't want anyone else to look at my stuff until I've removed all the warts I can see by myself. I can't imagine saying to someone, "It's pretty good. Make it better." I want to make my novels the best they can be by myself, and I don't share with anyone until I think they're ready. But when I hand a piece over, as I did yesterday, I still doubt that it's ready enough.

[Peg Herring]

Ain't it the truth!

[I. J. Parker]

A novel is never finished. It will return again and again to haunt you.