The novel or short story is first and foremost a source of entertainment, what consumers turn to among myriad of choices, to provide rest and relaxation, from a world moving at breakneck speed. To insure the most comfortable reading experience, writers want to offer a story with interesting plot, centered on characters about the reader from word one cares for.
The best plots come from minds and hearts that not only interact with the world and those in it, on a deep and sincere level, but also have the time in which to ponder what they witness.
In short those who have deep, intimate relationships with family and friends have access to innumerable universes from which to develop novels, or better yet received ideas on what to write, an in the most blessed of situations, channel stories from which they simply take dictation.
Yet and still, those stories, however heart-filled and carefully written, will need polishing. The seasoned author or student of writing seeks out an editor and lays aside her or his feelings of disappointment that we all feel when seeing the work required to bring our story to its shining moment.
She or he trudges forward onto this next level of the process and begins making the revisions requested even if she or he decides later on the final draft will include an amalgam of changes and modifications suggested by the editor and later revised by the author or writer.
The most important thing that can and needs to take place between an editor and writer is change, transformation.
The writer needs to grow in her or his capacity to craft a story and in her or his recognition of what she or he needs to do to make their stories and or novel the best they can be. But this can and does only come from continuing to polish the work at hand.
Editors offer a wealth of information to writers and would-be authors should we choose to listen and make changes. Our capacity for learning and our willingness to be receive feedback, critical and suggestive form the lynch pin of instituting those changes.
Writing is a process involving both literary craft and the revision, revealing one’s ability to bend and stretch without breaking.
And this is where we the writer/author determine our own destiny regarding the quality of our writing.
What’s your scale of flexibility?
How open are you to change, and flux?
What do you think of literary criticism?
How are you about making changes in your work?
How many revisions do you make of your stories or novels before approaching an editor?