Editing: How Important is It?

Very.

And yet this is a place where writers from all genres agree to disagree, as was the case today on AAMBC Radio where the topic was, “How Important is Editing?”

I encourage all writers and novices of the craft to listen to or download the broadcast.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/AAMBC/2009/05/02/Panel-Discussion-How-important-is-Editing

It would seem that quality editing is not a problem for traditionally published books. Please be sure it is.

Should you think differently look around and open your eyes to all the editors recently and during the past several years released from their jobs at major publishing houses.

They abound. And their advertisements offering services of their expertise in the field of writing fill the back pages of writing magazines such as Writer’s Digest, The Writer and Poets and Writers.

But how does a writer or would-be author choose a good editor?

Clearly finding one is not the problem.

Gut instinct and experience tell me that finding a good editor for your writing is much like finding a good psychotherapist for your heart and soul. You have to be in the write place and your heart and mind need to be too.

You need to have the best of intentions for your work, not impatience and the need for celebrity status and attention as the driving forces behind your decision to write a book and launch your story to the world.

Ambition is not a bad thing. Yet it is only truly gained by setting one’s self on the task of creating and delivering the best product possible, achieving your personal best.

In a culture where time and patience with things that require time to develop are not considered a virtue, are rather considered later bloomers, as opposed to people who choose to apprentice and learned the essence of their craft, writers and would-be authors, even first and second-time published authors cannot afford to allow the conventional wisdom, if it can be called that, to direct the long-term goals for their writing career.

The advancements of the digital age and the internet have made it possible for just about anyone to write a book and bring it to print in either physical form as with a hardcover or paperback book, or on the computer or cell phone screen.

It is our misfortune, as writers in America, that too many celebrated authors make writing a novel or short stories look appear an easy task. Yet success at anything comes with a struggle, a jihad of the most intense and personal kind, the one and true jihad—the fight with one’s self to do what is right and just to our conscience no matter the external context or circumstances.

No technological advancement can go inside one’s mind and deliver imagination. Nor can they endow one with the perseverance to keep refining and revising what the beliefs and fears of their heart deliver in stories.

Ultimately every artist of any medium must dedicate her or himself to doing the best work possible with each creation they undertake. And then they must follow through.

Writers must learn to write, study the craft of putting words together to make sentences, phrases and paragraphs that paint scenes, which constitute chapters and render a book.

It behooves one to apprentice in the area of writing before seeking out an editor. The editor neither a story nor writer make. Only we ourselves, through dedication, heartache, turmoil and burning the light throughout many a night, can accomplish that. And still more awaits our learning and application.

Einstein dedicated 8 years to learning the math required to understand the Theory of Relativity, delivered by the universe or gods in a dream. I recall this when growing impatient with myself, and the time it takes to improve and refine my writing and my stories.

Another genius in her own right, Toni Morrison who was also an experienced literary editor, spent 7 years writing Beloved.

Like the protagonists of the novels we love we must dedicate ourselves to undergoing the transformation of becoming not simply a recorder of words and thoughts, but artist with words and form.

The best things require time and commitment.

All good things come those who wait, and persist.

How long have you persisted?

What is your limit for watching and waiting to see your words and stories in print?