This past autumn, there was an article in the Romance Writer’s
Digest about “taking back our writing.” I’m not going to lie and say I read the
RWR from cover to cover, because I don’t, but I did pause to read this article.
In this article, the author admits to being caught in the
vicious cycle of meeting deadlines. Publishing is a dog-eat-dog world and a lot
of small press pubs rely on volume. Too many live and die by the short story.
The art of writing a full-length novel is dying, choked out by the need to
produce, produce, produce. The writer of the article acknowledged this. And
then she impressed me. She said it’s time to step off the treadmill.
I agree with her. I want to write a story I’m proud of. I
decided quite a while back I could no longer churn out story after story to
meet the needs of a publisher. My alter ego did that for a bit and it’s too
exhausting to sustain. My library has a few books that suffered because I met the
deadline. Those stories got short-changed, both by the writer and more so the
editor. I think there are more writers besides myself putting out
indie-published books for that very reason. If an editor doesn't have time to do justice to your book, you need to take another path.
Take the time to write a story you can be proud of. Check
for typos, passive voice, missed words and continuity errors. Will you find all
of them? Probably not. And trust me - neither does an editor. You may be a
novice but your work doesn’t have to look like a newbie wrote it. When it comes
to finishing your story, speed is not your friend.
It’s YOUR name on the cover of your book. This is one
instance where being prideful is a good thing.
Rayne
www.twitter.com/rayneforrest
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