Have you ever had a conversation with one person and a common thread seemed to tie it to another conversation and another? I’m not talking about gossip, that’s different. What I’m talking about is, I was talking to a writer friend of mine, who I really respect, and we were talking about wanting to grow in our writing. I was explaining that I feel like writing for epubs has taught me so much about the process of writing, being edited, promoting, etc. It’s been quite an education over the last four years.

I was then talking to a different person, not an author, and I was saying that I like having tough editors because they force me to grow. I may bitch and whine the entire time I’m doing edits, but I bitch and whine the entire time I’m exercising too. Afterwards, I feel better for putting forth the effort.

I’ve heard of authors who get books back that have few changes and I envy them in some ways. To me, it means they’ve sent in a really clean manuscript that’s professionally written and ready for publication. But I also wonder, is anyone pushing them? Now, some of my friends write really clean manuscripts. I mean, seriously, no grammatical errors or typos or anything like that, but they still need someone from the outside to read the ms and make sure everything makes sense. What seems perfectly logical in one’s brain doesn’t always translate on paper, especially for me.

A good editor looks for more than just grammar mistakes, they check to see if the voice is consistent, if the actions make sense, if the characters are likeable and believable, and if the story moves on at a good pace. And if any of the above doesn’t work, they let you know.

I remember when I was first starting out with writing and listening to people as they complained about their critique groups. It seemed to me that quite often people didn’t want to hear how to fix their story, they just wanted to hear how wonderful their stories were. I remember thinking that as nice as it might feel to hear that my story was great, I’d rather know what an editor would think, good, bad, or ugly.

So, if there are any aspiring authors who read my blog, my advice to you would be to develop a thick skin NOW. An editor rarely points out what’s right about a book, but a good editor will definitely tell you what’s wrong. Better to listen and grow than defend your position and remain stagnent. It’s hard when someone picks on your “baby” but you need to divorce yourself emotionally and see whether or not the changes will make it a stronger story.

Many times it will. So learn from it!!!

Have you ever played what if? Not the “What if” we played as kids, like “What if you ate a worm that fell into toxic waste?” I’m talking about, “What if a woman was going about her life and a man ran up to her and said he needed her to fly away with him to another planet and save the world?”

No? Never? Okay, maybe I’m just weird.

Actually, the what if game is what starts off most of my books. I’ll be watching a movie or listening to the radio and something will happen that will get me thinking “what if  instead of running off with the good guy, she went with the bad guy instead?”

The next thing you know, I’ve got characters knocking around in my head demanding a story. It’s a terrible thing, seriously.

I go about my normal life and all of a sudden, people I’ve never dreamed of are stomping their fictional feet and keeping me awake at night until I can write something down about them.

If you’ve had this happen to you, you know what I’m talking about. If you haven’t, you might want to try it, it can be fun sometimes!