You Need Editors to Save You From Ant-Trafficking

You Need Editors to Save You From Ant-Trafficking

Writing a book is scary, people.

It’s scary because you don’t know where to start or how you’ll finish.  You might have a gazillion ideas but they refuse to be orderly and go where you tell them to.  (Much like children.)  Or you might sit down at the end of the day to ponder fresh plots only to find that your mind would rather ponder dark chocolate and Netfix.

But when you actually get pen to paper and those pages start to resemble a book, THEN you face your biggest fear yet.  You haven’t created a lifeless blob of syntax and nouns, but an extension of your soul, beating with your own life-blood.  This book may as well be you.

Few people readily invite criticism and critique of themselves and their soul-work.  But if your book is going to be perfect, polished, or even passable, you must put it through the most horrifying process known to man….editing.

One of my first four readers playfully embraced her new role as editor with this question: “How much editing will ruin our friendship?

If I gave her freedom to be blunt with me, my book would benefit, but it might sting ME a little.

In the end, the process was worth every ounce of discomfort because my editors saved us all from some depressing mistakes.

For instance, thanks to one editor you will be reading briefly about Lebron James, not Lebraun.  (This is absolutely ridiculous unless you thought I was A) referring to a men’s electric razor brand and B) trying to say it with a French accent.  Scratch that…it’s ridiculous no matter how you spin it.)  This is what happens when you try to combine mediocre spelling skill with limited knowledge of sports.

Another editor noticed that in a very serious part of the book, I inadvertently wrote about an “ant-trafficking” organization instead of “ANTI-trafficking.”  Man, you forget one little “i” and things get super awkward crazy fast.

Other editors discovered accidental innuendos, awkward grammar, redundant themes and repetitive ideas.

Truthfully, How to Be a Moon still isn’t perfect.  But it’s a lot better and a lot less insect-y.

So here’s my advice to writers:

Maret Hosemann, Pixabay.com
  • Don’t be afraid to ask for help editing.  When you ask for help you’re inviting others to be part of your team and your mission.   You’re creating an opportunity for them to serve, and for you to grow in humility and community.  Writing so often feels like a solo sport, but inviting editors, prayer partners, and a launch team to join me has expanded my vision and reminded me how beautifully our gifts are made to complement each other.
  • Know What You Need in an Editor.  If you’ve never had an editor, start with someone that you know and trust your heart with, even if they don’t have an English degree.  Opening yourself up to more critique might be a process for you.  But if you’re serious about publishing, you eventually need to find people for your team who are honest, gracious, and knowledgeable. You want someone who will affirm what you’re doing well, but ultimately who would rather improve your work than pamper your ego.  And clearly you want someone who knows their commas from their semicolons and will call you out when you don’t put punctuation inside the quotation marks.  (I’m looking at you, Steve.)
  • Invite Strategic Feedback You might not need five “editors” (someone who combs through the finer details of spelling, grammar, flow, etc), but you should be getting feedback on your book from more than one person.  Why?  People see things differently and give you a wider perspective.  Your feedback team should include at least a couple people in your target audience.  Who is your book for?  Both men and women? Parents or church leaders? Teens or adults?  The ideal time to find out if your book actually relates to your intended audience is NOW, not after publishing.  Also, choose at least one person to give you feedback who doesn’t know you well.  Editors/readers who are friends unconsciously bring their knowledge of your personality and life-stories into their reading.  Find a writer’s group or online writing community like Uplift Creator to help you get feedback from outside your circle of friends.
  • Ask Yourself What This Feedback Will Shape.  You are inviting people to edit and improve your book, but YOU are ultimately the one casting the vision and direction for the book.  For the love of all things java, please take grammar and spelling edits to heart.  But when it comes to thematic content, personal stories, and more, there are times when you will disagree with the feedback you get.  Here’s what you need to know: every piece of feedback will shape your book, but it doesn’t have to change your book.  Your book isn’t for everyone, so learn to distinguish what to do with feedback.   One editor shared why parts of my book weren’t relatable to him.  That wasn’t fun to hear, but I realized he might not be my target audience after all.  In the end, I allowed the feedback to clarify my audience rather than change my content.
  • Don’t let your insecurity keep you from growth.  If criticism were a tunnel through a mountain- the quickest and best way to the other side- I’d rather walk all the way around, thank you very much.  I really loathe any negative critique.  But, as I’ve already pointed out, the difference in the approach is the difference between Lebron and Lebraun, Ant-trafficking and anti-trafficking.  It’s a big deal. Allow your editors to be honest.  When you know you’ve chosen people who have your best interest at heart, you can embrace criticism as the tool that it is.  And when you understand that not every edit needs to change your book, you can walk more confidently into an edit session with your vision in mind.
  • Don’t Take Yourself Too Seriously. If you can learn to laugh over mistakes, and possibly even blog about them, you’ll find they are far less scary and embarrassing.

Thanks for stopping in to read!  What lessons have YOU learned as a writer?  What groups or online communities have you used to find editors or get feedback for your work? And to all you ant-traffickers out there, we’d all love to know the secrets of your underground career.

 



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