Loved this post, Alison. As you know, I've recently wrestled with my own editor issues, wondering how much of his feedback truly helped the story. I need my own version of your babysitter...
Long, long ago one of my scripts was a winner in the Atlantic Film Festival's Scripts Out Loud. We 4 winners workshopped our pieces with a highly-respected instructor. He suggested so many changes to my story, though claiming to like it, that by the end of the process I didn't feel I had any connection to it. It was just another script. I never did much with it after that.
Something essential chipped away at. At least those 8 pages did it all at once; it was there in front of me. But to chip away, to keep suggesting changes one after anther, until you're left wondering what's in your hands...
I had a similar editorial experience with a picture book many years ago minus getting it published by another press, although I didn’t send it anywhere else. Interesting though. It isn’t the first time I’ve had an editor want to write a different story.
Yes. I also spent a good six months trying to make it work in the form the editor saw it working. In the end, I was frustrated, and defeated. My agent at the time was lovely, but not as experienced with picture books (we later parted ways and her focus became YA). It’s one of those manuscripts that I put in a drawer. These days picture books are much shorter and mainly for quite a young audience. It would no longer work in its current form as it was a crossover picture book intended for a more mature audience. In the scheme of things, think that not everything we write is meant to be published. Some help us grow as writers , or as people. That book probably needs to be a novel, but that is not the story that is compelling enough to keep me engaged for a full length novel. At my core, I am a picture book writer. Longer works are a struggle for me. I also believe there are a number of editors out there who are wanna-be-writers. And books are products. They have to have audience who will pay to read them. So as writers, we have to understand when and where we are ok with compromise and when to pull a project.
So much here, Sheryl. All useful. And worthy of a mull!
The piece about some books are for us, for our growth, or maybe even our souls--yes. And the markets at the moment. The ever-changing market...
Once, in a workshop, a well-published illustrator pointed out to another student to consider "shelving" what could be considered a rather edgy work, until she had something else published... which was sound advice. Timing can be everything.
I love how rich your articles are, Alison…a wealth of writing knowledge and also of choices and pathways for how you have handled challenges and opportunities. I wished I had come across you sooner in my career!
And I so appreciate your work and thought. Writers need to come together and share--between us, so much! And to not feel alone as we make these decisions. We each are alone to do so much of what we do, that this is good.
I wonder how many writers have been influenced by others enough to change what they're doing in big ways. We all are influenced. So you need distance - from yourself and from their comments at times - enough distance / time to see where you need to take it. At the end of the day, it's still your story.
Oh yes, always listen to the kid! My editor often didn't like the way my main character spoke. She would say, "Kids don't talk like that." And, perhaps the kids she knew didn't. But I was using words and phrases I heard from kids in my life!
Loved this post, Alison. As you know, I've recently wrestled with my own editor issues, wondering how much of his feedback truly helped the story. I need my own version of your babysitter...
I lost touch with her after they moved away from the neighourhood, and went up north.
I hope she's writing...
She truly did cut to the chase.
Long, long ago one of my scripts was a winner in the Atlantic Film Festival's Scripts Out Loud. We 4 winners workshopped our pieces with a highly-respected instructor. He suggested so many changes to my story, though claiming to like it, that by the end of the process I didn't feel I had any connection to it. It was just another script. I never did much with it after that.
Something essential chipped away at. At least those 8 pages did it all at once; it was there in front of me. But to chip away, to keep suggesting changes one after anther, until you're left wondering what's in your hands...
I had a similar editorial experience with a picture book many years ago minus getting it published by another press, although I didn’t send it anywhere else. Interesting though. It isn’t the first time I’ve had an editor want to write a different story.
When I think over the years, it's been a number!
Did the experience hold you back from sending it elsewhere?
Yes. I also spent a good six months trying to make it work in the form the editor saw it working. In the end, I was frustrated, and defeated. My agent at the time was lovely, but not as experienced with picture books (we later parted ways and her focus became YA). It’s one of those manuscripts that I put in a drawer. These days picture books are much shorter and mainly for quite a young audience. It would no longer work in its current form as it was a crossover picture book intended for a more mature audience. In the scheme of things, think that not everything we write is meant to be published. Some help us grow as writers , or as people. That book probably needs to be a novel, but that is not the story that is compelling enough to keep me engaged for a full length novel. At my core, I am a picture book writer. Longer works are a struggle for me. I also believe there are a number of editors out there who are wanna-be-writers. And books are products. They have to have audience who will pay to read them. So as writers, we have to understand when and where we are ok with compromise and when to pull a project.
So much here, Sheryl. All useful. And worthy of a mull!
The piece about some books are for us, for our growth, or maybe even our souls--yes. And the markets at the moment. The ever-changing market...
Once, in a workshop, a well-published illustrator pointed out to another student to consider "shelving" what could be considered a rather edgy work, until she had something else published... which was sound advice. Timing can be everything.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
I love how rich your articles are, Alison…a wealth of writing knowledge and also of choices and pathways for how you have handled challenges and opportunities. I wished I had come across you sooner in my career!
And I so appreciate your work and thought. Writers need to come together and share--between us, so much! And to not feel alone as we make these decisions. We each are alone to do so much of what we do, that this is good.
Wow - out of the park.
I wonder how many writers have been influenced by others enough to change what they're doing in big ways. We all are influenced. So you need distance - from yourself and from their comments at times - enough distance / time to see where you need to take it. At the end of the day, it's still your story.
Your second sentence--it's a question, yes. I wonder, too.
I remember one of my sons, trying to make a school/career decision, and his question of himself was: how will I feel about this in a year?
Or five. Or a decade.
We can ask...
Oh yes, always listen to the kid! My editor often didn't like the way my main character spoke. She would say, "Kids don't talk like that." And, perhaps the kids she knew didn't. But I was using words and phrases I heard from kids in my life!
What they say about real life... !