We Can’t Do This Alone
I used to think that writing was a solitary endeavor, undertaken by reclusive people with creative minds who could imagine whole worlds and stories and then send off their perfect, completed book to be published. While it’s certainly possible to write a novel, even a good one, with no input from others, it has become clear to me that we do our best work when we have help.
I’ve found some amazing fellow authors while working on my new book. They write in different genres than me. They’re at different places in their writing journeys. They have skills and weaknesses that are different from mine. Some of them don’t even live in the same country. But all of them have contributed substantially to making my book better than I could do on my own. They see things I don’t. They question things I thought were clear. They point out problems. They suggest improvements. They provide inspiration. They are creative people who care enough to look at my work with a critical eye and invest their time and energy into it. I gladly do the same for them, and together we help each other grow as authors.
But aren’t they my competition? Why should I help them? Why should they help me? Isn’t this a cutthroat race to success?
No.
I may never meet these people in real life, but when I invest in their work, and they invest in mine, they become a friend. I want them to succeed. I’ve done what I can to help them, and I want that to result in something. They have the same hopes and dreams for their writing that I do for mine. And if they achieve success, I’ll be thrilled. We all stand a better chance by working together, and no one understands the ups and downs of this pursuit better than a fellow author.
On this same theme, I never appreciated the benefits of an editor until I went through the editing experience on Silent Altitudes. I feared editors were people who would demand changes that I wouldn’t agree with, forcing me to alter my book into something other than the story I wanted to tell. I don’t doubt that happens sometimes, but for me it was an amazing learning experience. My editor had an entire skill set that I did not. She pushed me in all the right directions. She corrected things I’d always done wrong, and showed me ways to improve my future work. I can never thank her enough for all that I learned through working with her.
As I look to the future, it’s with the expectation that no matter how well I think I’ve written a book, it can always be better. Receiving criticism from friends, critique partners, test readers, literary agents, and editors will never be easy, but as long as they all share the goal of producing a better story, they are a team I’ll always want on my side.
To visualize it, writing in isolation is like fielding only a quarterback and wondering why the other team wins the game. We authors can’t do it all on our own.