Yesterday was my regular contribution to Writer Unboxed. I discussed how some independent authors are putting their work out there with zero professional help. Here’s a snippet:
Working with professionals should challenge you. It should raise the bar. You’ll probably feel some doubts about the quality of your work. This is a good thing. Professionals usually understand and build off your strengths, and minimize the appearance of your weaknesses.
One of first things I teach my writing students is you need someone you trust to push you—to tell you where things aren’t working. Most people don’t have that gift of being so distant from their work that they can see objectively where it’s succeeding or failing. Even the writers who DO have that power usually have decades of experience and self-knowledge—from being pushed.
Yes, my argument does mean: To develop to your maximum potential, you need someone to create a little discomfort.
Jane Friedman has spent her entire career working in the publishing industry, with a focus on business reporting and author education. Established in 2015, her newsletter The Bottom Line provides nuanced market intelligence to thousands of authors and industry professionals; in 2023, she was named Publishing Commentator of the Year by Digital Book World.
Jane’s expertise regularly features in major media outlets such as The New York Times, The Atlantic, NPR, The Today Show, Wired, The Guardian, Fox News, and BBC. Her book, The Business of Being a Writer, Second Edition (The University of Chicago Press), is used as a classroom text by many writing and publishing degree programs. She reaches thousands through speaking engagements and workshops at diverse venues worldwide, including NYU’s Advanced Publishing Institute, Frankfurt Book Fair, and numerous MFA programs.
I couldn’t agree more. It always amazes me that, after I’ve proofed and edited a piece of my writing numerous times and am convinced it’s the best I can make it, I can go back to it and still find something that needs to be changed. It could be as simple as a one letter typo or as extensive as a major rewrite. There is definitely immeasurable value in having a professional read your work.
Yes! I always love to have a few weeks go by (or even months!) to let a piece go cold so I can get that objective look. Feels so good to make those improvements before passing off to someone else.
I always appreciate someone who is brutally honest with me, even if it’s uncomfortable. Pearls are only created with a little agitation. Thanks!
Totally right! Thanks for commenting.
Critical feedback, it’s SO important!
I have always given my work out to readers in stages, hoping to catch an off-course drift before I get totally lost in the story. Up until my last published novella, my instincts held and the feedback validated my choices rather than shift them. But my last piece, I wrote totally within a bubble, and whoa, what a wake-up call to discover that the story didn’t hang together at all! And gee, I followed all the rules! What happened?
I know what happened. Needing to fill content for my blog, I wrote “product.” And I wrote it, without inspiration and passion. I did not inject a heart and soul into the body of the work. It was structurally together, but not alive.
Had I taken the time to send it out for review instead of rushing it to publication, I would have caught the baby before the fall. And this is what editors do in publishing companies. They save your baby!
So story #3, I have sent out! You can’t rush art!
Irv
I’ve written some of that stuff, too—the not-alive stuff! I always consider it part of the path or process to getting to something that works. (I bet you do, too!)