-If you are lucky a good editor is an expert that you fully trust. If you are very lucky, a friend. If you are blessed beyond measure a soul-mate.
-Believes that grammar is a path to beauty. Is in love with sentences.
-Helps you say what you tried to say. Helps you discover the meaning of your work. Let’s you see your vision.
-Taps you on the shoulder and gently says, “Ah, remember the reader.”
-Sends you back to the drawing board for more goodness and more hope.
-Believes in you when you don’t. Waits for you until you do.
-Thinks she’s here (as on this earth) in part for you.
-Learns from you. Teaches you. Is inspired by you. Awakens you. Is deepened by you. Guides you.
-Does not accept good when there is better and won’t settle for better until it is your best.
-Diagrams your book so you don’t have to. Knows literary theory so you can be free to follow your gut.
-Articulates in actual words the vague sense you have that something is not right. Hears the little bells you decided to ignore. Surprises you with her delight.
-Knows there’s such a thing as too subtle and too obvious.
-Knows what others are writing and expects you to be different.
-Thinks you’re hot stuff, even if she’s smarter than you.
-Recognizes that it is not about you or her but about something greater.
October 29, 2012
A Good Editor
January 25, 2012
Second Chances
After I finished writing my first YA book, Behind the Eyes (Dutton: 2005), my then eighteen-year-old daughter Anna said to me with characteristic honesty that it was a good book but that I had held back. I had held back from being as knowledgeable and wise and funny as she knew I was. I don’t know if I denied or admitted it to her. I try to remain non-judgmental to my family’s comments about my books so that they can be free to voice whatever they think (I don’t always succeed at this), but I do know that in my heart of hearts she was right. For some reason, I held back. I was, like Hector, the young main character of the book, afraid to share the gifts I was given. So when I wrote Marcelo in the Real World, I did my best to not hold back, to leave it all on the page. I’ve tried to do the same with other books I’ve written, even though I still have a ways to go. I know, for example, that there is still a gap betwen the humor and lightheartedness of my life and the books I write, but I’m working on that. After all, it’s not always easy to transform knowledge and wisdom and humor into art which is essential in writing a novel that will interest and maybe even touch another soul.
I came to accept Behind the Eyes as one of those learning and growing experiences that every writer has and I moved on. Then a year or so ago Arthur A. Levine/Scholastic decided it would be nice to have all of my books under their imprint and they purchased the expired rights to Behind the Eyes. Cheryl Klein and I had long thoughtful discussions about the book and we decided that we had a choice to publish the book with minor changes, major revisions or somewhere in between. We went for the middle-path. A place to travel in life, as well. So in a few more days I will give Cheryl final revisions (there have been a couple of drafts already) to the book which is scheduled to come out in the Spring of 2013. A second chance. How rare is that? I have absolutely no need for second chances for Marcelo or Death Warriors or Irises, but as to Behind the Eyes, I am so grateful to be given the opportunity to not hold back. For in addition to the knowledge, wisdom and humor that my daughter correctly perceived I had witheld, I also held back on love. How could it happen that I could create a character like Hector without truly loving him? It makes me sad to think about this. I guess learning to love (characters and real human beings) takes time and mistakes galore. All that I can think of is that I had to learn about love and about self-forgiveness before Hector could love himself and others, before Hector could chisel his way through the granite ways of self-acceptance.
So I’m off to pour all I have into the final revisions of this old and new book and, with Cheryl’s help, this will become art. I’m not holding back. I’m leaving it all on the page.Â
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April 1, 2011
Compassion
“Be kind to yourself.” Cheryl Klein, my editor, said to me recently as we discussed my revisions to a manuscript. Her words made me think about what it means to be kind to oneself in the process of writing and re-writing a book. To be kind to myself meant that in evaluating the work, I needed to take into account the circumstances during which it was created. I struggled with depression as I wrote and re-wrote the work. This meant that there was no way I could have an objective view of the work’s quality. I worked through most of it as if wrapped in cellophane – unable to “feel” whether the work was any good. Then, when I was done, I was overcome with a sense that I had not gotten it right, that I had missed the mark. I submitted the work to Cheryl anyway and it was like any other writing. Parts of it were perfect and parts of it needed more work. How I “felt” about the work was not important. I needed to be kind to myself. St. Theresa of Avila said about prayer: “When the wind blows we put up our sail and when it doesn’t we row.” Here was a work where it felt as if I had rowed most of the way. And there were so many days when it felt as if the boat could not move or even went in the wrong direction. To be kind to myself meant that I needed to accept those days and even to be grateful for the little rowing that I did. It was good just to stay afloat. Now that the work is almost done, the process almost complete, now more than ever I need to be kind to myself. I am grateful for others who can help me determine whether a work is ready for publication. I am grateful for the energy, the words, the insights and images that came, no matter how slowly. For the daily faith that kept me going. To be grateful for our offering, no matter how small, is to be kind to oneself.
