Sixth Prompt - The Editor Experience (07/09)

Final Reflective Essay - In Retrospect
This post was altered for the Final Reflective Essay. It was originally titled "[PROMPT 6] #27: Sixth Prompt - The Editor Experience".

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"This week's reflective blog post prompt is all about the collaborative reflective network: Find, as a starting point for critical reflection, an idea raised/explored in a blog post of one of your class peers that you find particularly interesting/thought provoking. Include a link to that post in your post, and try to include references to two other parts of different peers."

S'been a long time since I wrote a reflective blog prompt, eh? I had to check on the last standalone one (#12, 3rd Prompt) just to check the formatting! But now everything's coming back to me.

This topic's a bit old, but I wanted to discuss editors and receiving feedback on our work. It's most likely recent for me because I asked for feedback from David and my editor on the weekend before Monday's submission. I thought it'd be nice to reflect on some quotes from my classmates' posts about editing.

Angus' revelation about editors was this:

"I can really see now why it's so often the editors, rather than the long-suffering spouses, children, and parents, that get pride of place is (sic) book dedications. It feels like my writerly hypochondria is finally being treated by a doctor that can bulk bill sanity checks."

I have wondered this a little bit too. Heh. Sometimes I get a little bit anxious about who I plan to dedicate my first novel to. Will it be my family and loved ones, specific names or generic? Will it be my role model teachers who believed in me? Or will it even be my editor? I've read a few manga featuring an author main character and an editor, and I was always so confused by their relationships. Sometimes it'll be really formalish in a cafe, sometimes they behave like nagging Mums (to manga-writing author characters especially, who don't know how to take care of themselves and have some weird condition that makes the story quirky), sometimes they'll be really chummy with the writer. The latter usually carries a grump writer to boot, to make the sunshine-grumpy trope play out. Oh, and don't forget the overly obsessed, needtoreaditrightawaybecauseiloveyourwork! characters in these stories, though they're not necessarily editors. I don't think it'll ever be like that in real life, but I'll find that out for myself, I guess. Lots of normal-behaving people out there.

Beau's comments about the editing process were relatable. The parts which struck me most were,

"Feedback is like being tickled. I can't decide if I love it or hate it. And that goes for both positive and negative feedback."

"In person, when I receive positive feedback I have to fight against my natural impulse to list out all the reasons why it is undeserving of that praise."

For many of us, this will be our first experience being edited. And I definitely felt the impulse to start denying my work is good. This sort of attitude comes from a low view of one's abilities, I think... even if the writer feels confident about their work, they might feel this way.

I think this mindset has occurred from our extreme avoidance of wanting to be seen as narcissistic and boastful, particularly when our skills aren't actually that good. Wanting to be humble, we become self-degrading, digging below rock bottom to be as far away from boastful as we can. But the editor helps to bring us back out of there with some coaxing, reaffirmation that what we have written is good, and gently lay us the helpful suggestions to improve it, so as to not let us scamper back into our burrows and dig ourselves further to gain sympathy.

Whilst I tend to get very squeamish about presents and receiving compliments, I've refrained from doing this refusal/criticism of my work, saying it's "not that good" to fish for sympathy, because of what Arin Hanson once said. During one of his Game Grumps Let's Plays, he said that he doesn't respond to anything whom someone presents meekly, "This isn't that good but I hope you like it", "Aaaaa this is trash", and probably even "You don't need to respond to this" type stuff (maybe this explains why he never responded to that fan email I once sent him...). He presented a scenario; if a salesperson came to your door and said, "Hey um, we have this product, it's not really that great but... would you like to buy it?" Of course you would say no. But that's how we peddle our work when we're not confident about it. And we shouldn't.

I'm not trying to say that Beau is secretly fishing for sympathy! There are writers who genuinely feel that way, and I get it. But I think it's a little nagging thing inside each of us creators. It's a natural part of the process, and we have to work to minimise it. Because we do have something valuable to bring into the world, and we shouldn't try to cover it up with a cloth because we're comparing ourselves to others and such.

So, overall, I get it. It was surprising though, seeing Beau's approach to receiving his feedback. He said he would procrastinate on it before finally opening it up, and then procrastinated further when responding. I used to understand this painful anxiety, but the whole "rip it off like a bandaid" advice has really helped me to get over things like this. Smaller things, in my eyes, anyway (don't ask me to fill out government forms, please... my Mom's been pressuring me to get my own Medicare and the forms scared me so the pandemic is currently saving me...). But I've been more excited to see what they (Carly and my friends!) like about my work, so that's what motivates me to open it.

The last quote which resonated with me came from Jake, which was,

"...after receiving Rosalind's feedback on my first draft, I was flushed and excited that someone just understood what I'd written. Before she'd read it, it was writing that only existed and had meaning in my head. Her comprehension made it readable writing, and the feedback she offered gave room for it to be enjoyable writing - a real privilege."

As you're writing, you don't know whether or not what you're writing is pure garbage or actually genius. Probably a mixture between the two, and it's even surprising when people pick out particular lines or parts they loved.

Trust me. I was bewildered by all the comments my peers gave me on the "We went into Coles for some dental floss I needed to buy" line/paragraph in my original piece. Like, outta everything I've done, you're focusing on the DENTAL FLOSS line ((okay paragraph but I mean THAT))?!

It's such a treat when people pick out different things about your writing that you've done unintentionally. It's because it means they're paying close attention. I was incredibly touched when David was encouraging me to use more of my blog voice in my final which instead had become bland, and smoothed over. He pointed out how fun it was when I juxtaposed, talking about the Milligram deluxe store and then deciding on an adult store next to visit with G. And how whether that daring nature, which resulted from me being cooped up at home, was yet to be determined as a "positive" thing. I understood what he had meant when I laughed at my own words.

I'm glad that Jake got to experience such joy when discussing with his piece with his editor, and to all my peers who felt the same! It's making me feel more certain that writing is something that I want to, and not something to fear TOO much... that rush of feeling understood, and that someone cares about your work in this way... it makes you want to create, create and create! On the right path to make it the best that it is, with an editor in tow, of course~ hehe! Or perhaps they're the one with the leash to make sure we're rushing on the right path. Sounds about right.

-Katie, the Plague Wanderer