Editing Blues

[Judy Nichols]

Writing is fun. You can create your own universe. You control everything that happens in your story. Need a reason for people to walk quickly past your murderer as he disposes of a body in the backyard? You make it rain, and not just a little rain, it's a torrential downpour. You're master of the weather. How cool is that?

Eding on the other hand, is a tedious chore, a pain in the patootie, and absolutely no fun at all. As I plow through my manuscript for Tree Huggers, clarifying plot points and adding description, I wonder if it will ever get done. Yesterday, when we couldn't go to the coffee shop because I was working on the book, my daughter asked "Why can't they take it the way it is?"

Why, indeed.

That would be nice. But my ego has not expanded enough to believe that everything I write is well crafted, fascinating and tightly organized. Having an editor is an absolute necessity. We've all seen the books produced by Publish America and I-Universe where the manuscripts were printed just the way they were, with little more than a quick edit for punctuation. The editing process, odious as it may be, is what keeps our books respectable, now that any idiot can publish a book if he or she is willing to spend the money.

So it's back to work today, getting ever closer to the point where "the way it is" will be acceptable.