I happen to be at a low point right now. Probably lower than I was this time last year, when the pandemic grew stronger almost every day with no apparent end in sight. On the plus side, I have almost no appetite. That is a really big plus. I have managed to lose ten pounds without even trying. (Just imagine what I could lose if I did try.)
Maybe it’s because of all the revisions I have had to work on over the last few weeks. Revision is a different animal from editing. (I did a post on the differences a little while ago.) Editing is tedious, but I can do it easily. Revision simply sucks.
I sent my editor at Scholastic a draft of my Non-Fiction manuscript, Unlawful Orders earlier in 2021. I say draft, even though, for some foolish reason, I considered my words nearly perfect. Seriously, I have been writing novels - and having to revise them - for over a decade, but somehow I still foolishly believed I had crafted a revision proof draft.
Then I received the editorial letter.
The editor assured me she loved the story. Absolutely, it was awesome! There were just had one or two tiny areas she suggested I rethink. Yes, the dreaded revision letter I received for Unlawful Orders read a lot like that. I hate tiny areas. Like, even though the main character is a doctor, she thought there was too much about medicine on the pages. Oh, and there were minor characters she wanted me to make more prominent. Most of these were people who literally entered and then quickly exited the life of my protagonist. She wanted more aout World War II as well. My character lived to be in his nineties and only four years were spent in the army. Still, I needed more about the war.
No wonder I have no appetite these days.
Every change to the manuscript is taking me longer than I estimated. Except deleting an entire chapter she found unnesessary. That was painful, but at least it was quick, surgical. On the positive side, my story is a historical, tracing Chicago surgeon Dr. James Williams and his family though the twentieth century. I'm back to doing research to give her the additions she wants. Sometimes going through the past is as difficult as worldbuilding a story set in some far distant planet. It also makes me think. At least the story is non-fiction. That means I know how things end.
At the same time as I hear news that San Francisco is considered a national model in Covid vaccinations, my research tells me it was a major mask denier during the Spanish Flu, making it one of America's hardest hit big cities. The long, unending list of anti-Black riots that hit America in the twentieth century helps me understand the main chracter's father. He literally suffered a stroke when his sons were drafted in World War II and sent to Europe to fight, and possibly die, for a country that had never even passed a federal anti-lynching law. (PS, to this day, the US still has not passed one.) The more things change, the more they really do stay the same.
But my return to research for the revision effort did hand me one diamond. A poem called Outwitted by Dr. Roman Edwin Markham.
He drew a circle that shut me out
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But love and I had the wit to win
We drew a circle that took him in.
I will keep that idea in my life (and in my story). I shall draw a bigger circle to become more accepting to the world.
4 comments:
Barbara, I also am finding "now" more challenging than "then". I've heard that is true for many people around the world. And I love the poem. I've heard it before but it is an excellent reminder of how I can move forward in these (for me) challenging times.
Revising is rough, even in the best of times. Hang in there! I know you're a strong writer, and will get through this time.
Nice inspirational poem, too.
Looking forward to reading this book one day!
Unlawful Orders sounds like a great story that needs to be told! You will get through the revising woes, but I don't envy you going through it. I truly love Outwitted. Thank you for brightening my day.
Barbara, it is always difficult when an editor wants to mess with your story--and I think even more difficult when it's nonfiction. The things I always try to remember is that the editor is looking at the book as something to sell. As a writer, you are looking at the book as something to convey a character, certain themes, and feelings. Sometimes it is easy to see these two approaches at odds with each other.
However, I find when I am able to accept that the editor is NOT making any statement about me as a writer or my ability, or the story and its veracity. Instead she is making a statement about giving something more to the reader from a sales and marketing perspective.
You are a good writer or you wouldn't have been offered a contract. She is a good editor, or she wouldn't still have a job.
You will both win in the end. You will still have a strong story that gets everything you want included, and she will have a story she believes will sell in the marketplace she's targeted.
Also love the poem you shared. My personal spiritual practice is built much on the last two lines--that love wins out when we are able to draw a circle to take in those who feel the need to hate, knowing that they are in pain. If we address the pain, perhaps they can also learn to love.
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