Helping hand
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008I’m a fairly new writer, and though I’ve had some material accepted and published, I’m still struggling with how to make a story different enough to catch someone’s interest. The plot and characters are obviously important, something writers strive (or should!) to work on. The problem is when you’re writing sometimes it’s hard be objective about your own work. “How can anyone not like this?” Or conversly “What’s wrong with this? No one will ever want to read this.” What you really need is an editor who wants to help you find a way to be better, to get that story published.
Often we think of publishers and editors as strictly business oriented. Your story is accepted or rejected according to their particular needs at the time and that’s it. That’s partly true, a publisher not making a profit is not a publisher for long. But I have come to understand that publishers and editors are very real people and for the most part passionate about writing. They care about very much writing and would love to spend time helping aspiring authors but just don’t have the time. I want to mention two editors that went out of their way to help me.
One is the editor for my book Talnut. Bethany Morgan corrected approximately two million errors in the novel and was very patient explaining why each change was necessary. It took a lot of work on her part and I’m truly thankful for her help. I know she works long hours and cares about literature.
The other editor I shall call Wendy, as I’m worried she might be overwhelmed with requests by other writers. She offered to look over some of my work, including one novel, and help make them acceptable to a publisher. That might be her publisher or another, but she has the passion to help new writers.
Beth and Wendy are two different editors with two different publishers. But they have one thing in common. They care about writing and want to help others achieve. Thank you to both. Now I shall get back to writing the Great Canadian Novel.