Waiting for a sign
…or just doing the thing
(The chandelier in my from a strange angle)
(My friend Heather’s ceiling light from a weird angle)
It’s 2:04am.
In this quiet moment I’ve decided to set an intention.
Today my friend sent me a poster for her screenwriting class. I didn’t know she was a screenwriter. I’m going to go.
A friend of mine has been encouraging me (without pressure) to take my novelette and turn it into a tv series. A beloved friend of mine, who is an editor, once wrote a thing that said something like a writers who says “my friends liked my book” was a red flag.
It struck me in the heart. I had sent my tiny novelette to 42 friends. And they had liked it. People had said nice things.
…but the friend who wants me to make it into a tv show? I gave them my book the first day we met. Because they had lost their wife…and…my book is about death, and joy, and living and grieving…and ghosts…and family…and the strange heaviness of trying to live life after the people you love have died…but aren’t really gone. And I was weirdly compelled that day a year and a half ago…to give them the manuscript. They were a stranger, and they loved it.
My unpublished novelette is the reason I made that friend.
…and I’ve been so afraid to put it into the world because…what if it is just a book that people love because they love me.
…but I think, on re-examining my friend’s statement on the red flag of writers saying their friends liked it…I think it’s more nuanced. I sent my novelette to people who I know would be honest with me. That her comment really made me think about my writing. Examine my conviction. And I’m grateful for it.
I got extensive edits. I got feedback. A lot of it contradictory. In the end…it’s me who loves my novelette the most. If I had to “kill my darlings” something editors sometimes say about favourite sentences or moments in a book that don’t quite fit…I’d probably have to kill it all.
Tonight I had another friend send a mean about people wanting to see a movie about a pink haired autistic protagonist manic pixie who is living their life for themself instead of being a catalyst for other people’s dreams…
…and I thought. What if I finally buckled down and was a catalyst for my own dream.
Which is to make a very strange Canadian tv show about queerness, joy, ghosts in a small rural community.
What am I waiting for?
Nothing now.
It’s time to be my own manic pixie dream human.
(There will be a tiny book below…I’m excited about the prompts this week, and getting to spend some quality time rambling with a friend tomorrow morning…maybe we will even make tiny books together)
📚📚📚#127
I am so grateful for Heather this morning. This is my first Thursday with no Curious & Kind…and she invited me over for fresh fried crumpets toasted over a fire, cat company, hibiscus tea in an iridescent cup and tiny book making.
She brought out markers for me. And I really love this week’s prompts, and today’s book makes my heart happy.
Moon Shuffle
Heart,
Wake
42 second of the soothing night sounds outside my house from after my shift on Tuesday night.
(The cover of the doodle edit of my novelette….doodle-edited by the wondrous Amanda Earl )
I wouldn’t say friends liking it is any kind of flag at all. Not engaging with it (ie: it’s good/fine/polite response) would mean it wasn’t for them and that’s fine. Engaging with it but having no feedback would mean they liked it and found themselves unable to provide feedback because nothing stood out to bother them or they didn’t have the editing chops to suggest a change. Engaging with feedback would mean either something did jolt them out of the story or they have editing skills or they got so inspired by it they started trying to make it their own.
Certainly the last is the most useful though. It’s good to have found your audience. And your audience may be underserved so even if your audience isn’t straight men with manic pixie dream girl fantasies who make them the best version of themselves, you may still have readers.
I’m in the second group - it has stuck with me, it made me cry, and I discovered a new-to-me artist. It’s possible it can be improved, but heck that I know how. It’s a unique idea (what, not everything has to be obviously inspired by Shakespeare, fairy tales, or LOTR?) and it’s very true to its author (you aren’t writing about things you haven’t understood and didn’t research - you live in your real self not some optimized version).
On the other hand, I do have feedback galore for some published authors 😝 (the only one that really frustrates me is a local mystery that I really enjoyed but had some glaring mistakes- no one starts their journal with a description of their own character and she kept changing pov with some new paragraphs and I wouldn’t figure it out until it got really confusing then I’d have to backtrack. I want to edit it so I can reread it in comfort.)
I have the first version Brandon Sanderson wrote for The Way of Kings. It was a good, solid fantasy book. Forgettable but decent. I don’t know why his editor handed it back to him (I wouldn’t have) and got him to redo it - it was already better than half the published genre. But he must have had an excellent editor, because I love final version of The Way of Kings, have read it twice, and sought out pretty much everything he has written.
Anyway, I think an editor is invisible to the reader but an invaluable asset to the author.
You know, I would really like to sleep before our ramble. 😝 But the blowing rain woke me up and I rushed outside to bring in wood before it got wet. I’m hoping it abates enough to go for a walk but trying to control the weather is not something I need to be kept awake by 🙄. The wood is dry. My family is safe. Go to sleep… before the alarm goes off.
I said that because i get a lot of requests for editing services from people who have never worked with editors and when they tell me friends and family loved their work, it makes me worried that they won't be able to handle criticism. my biggest fear as an editor is that i will crush someone's dream of being a writer by offering editing suggestions that run counter to the love they've received for the work from well meaning friends and family. the f & f love their writer friend and want to be supportive. unless they are steeped in contemporary literature and attuned to its issues, tropes, cliches etc, they do not know how to improve a work and make it something that could be published. You asked for editing advice with very clear intentions and your expectations were also well defined. You didn't want copy editing or substantive changes. You wanted to know what I thought and whether the work resonated for me. the doodle edit was a great way to offer you something constructive and whimsical. but when i get the "my friends and family loved my work" without any clear and realistic expectation of constructive criticism, yes...it is a red flag. when a potential client mentions this validation to a potential editor, and doesn't express the possibility that the work has just begun...they will not find my editing helpful. my role as an editor is to help a writer make what is in their head a reality…it is to identify areas of improvement. and yes, part of it is to encourage them to keep working and to share their enthusiasm. if a writer has realistic expectations and is not just looking for confirmation of validation, i can help. if memory serves, before you sent out your delightful novellette to all 42 friends,.you sent it to a few people who were editiors. and you never used the my friends love it statement as validation. your novelette would be so wonderful on the screen! I'm so sorry, Wake..i was expressing my own frustrations of being an editor. at no point was i thinking of you..you are very professional in your writing. you research. you work with editors..you take criticism well. Basically you're a dream client. sending you hugs and love and profound apologies.