Under Attack!

My story is under attack. My story is being broken. They hate it. They hate me. Nobody understands what I am trying to create. Why don’t they understand this? Are they stupid?

I’ve thought some of these things, heard other writers say these things, and seen emotional responses even worse than all of these things during the course of editing and being edited. Editing is a very emotional experience.

As a writer, you have poured your everything into a piece of literature that you believe tells the story you want, expresses the theme you think the world needs now, or creates a character you think the world will want to follow. Now, in that moment of vulnerability, when you show the world what you can do, someone is going to tear you down and tell you what’s wrong.

But we have to take it. It’s just like life. Our writing, like our life, needs editing. We need people around us who are willing to say, “I do love you the way you are, but you can still be better and do better.” In editing, people will say, “I like this story, but it needs to be better right… here, and… here.” Editing is the scraping away of the extra to get to the heart of what really needs to be heard. It’s propping up that chapter that moved too slowly or making that character’s motivations more believable.

And just like in life, when you find a friend willing to tell you when you’re wrong and help you improve, when you find an editing partner—whether it’s a beta reader or a professional editor—who can communicate in a way you understand, they are worth their weight in gold. Thank them.

Now go scrape away the extra. Put your writing under attack. It hurts, but the writing will be better for it.