Writing as an editor

ARCs are in, reviews have got me in my feels, and I'm reflecting on how it all came to be

Today marks exactly six months until the release of The Book Tour! The digital advance review copy (ARC) has been up on NetGalley for a few weeks now and I just got my paperback ARCs last week. I unboxed them on my Instagram, and here I am, holding one up like the proud mama I am.

Having the ARCs out in the world makes it all feel very real, because people are actually reading the thing now. And, dare I say…enjoying it?? 🥹

While I know the advice to authors is not to read your own reviews, I share one trait with my debut’s FMC, Ana: I can’t help myself. But so far that’s working out just fine because, happily, most people are connecting with it exactly the way I hoped they would, and it’s filling my heart with so much joy. It’s also making me reflect on how the book came together, the writing process, and how the challenge was worth the reward.

On writing as an editor

A lot of people have asked me if writing a book came easily to me because I’ve been an editor for so many years. It must have come so naturally, they presume.

Um. No.

First of all, very little comes naturally to me—I’m a tryer. And writing a book is probably one of the most unnatural things I’ve ever done.

Did I have an advantage, having been an editor for so long? Of course. I’ve studied craft and story structure for years, applied my learnings to hundreds of other authors’ books. I’ve read more books than the average person, and not only finished, published books, but raw manuscripts. Novels that are in their early stages, or in later stages of revision but aren’t quite there yet, and everything in between. Manuscripts for which I have to diagnose what’s not working and prescribe potential solutions. From large-scale substantive edits like overall story structure and characterization, right down to nitty-gritty, detail-oriented, line-level edits. I know what makes for solid plotting, sympathetic characters, swift pacing, and of course that helps when it comes to applying those principles to my own writing.

But did the ideas just flow out of me? Did I sit down and draft like the wind? Hell no.

In fact, I often felt paralyzed by the conviction that it should come more naturally, given my editing background. I’d long spouted the old adage to authors, “the first draft does not have to be perfect,” but mine absolutely did. What do you mean, I’ve forgotten my entire vocabulary? What do you mean, the vibes in my head aren’t translating exactly the way I’m vibing them onto the page? It’s like that meme of the horse drawing—what started in my head as the butt translated onto the page as the head.

All this to say, drafting was a deeply humbling experience.

Then. Once the draft was done, and my ego was pulverized, and I started questioning all my choices, then came the most magical part of the entire process, and the part where my editing history really paid off: revisions.

If the first draft is a shitty horse-head sketch, revisions are where you can start overlaying those lines with strokes that look more horse-butt-ish. Often erasing those hasty lines entirely, replacing them with more carefully drawn ones that you now have the perspective to know will work better for the whole. And you can do as many passes as it takes to refine it until it matches the image in your head—cutting swaths of needless, pace-slowing detail; revising wording just so to really bring out the narrator’s voice; layering backstory seeds; layering characterization; layering layers upon layers of layers. Revising is where the story starts to actually feel like a story, and I’m grateful that after all that time in the desert of drafting, that part finally felt natural.

Another common question question I get: Did you always want to write a book?

Maybe surprisingly, no.

Well—when I was younger, maybe. I wrote a lot while I was in school, and at the time I likely would have said I wanted to be a writer. But creative writing classes browbeat that idea out of me. At my Canadian university there was such a bias toward deeply literary work, and what I liked to write wasn’t considered “good” in those circles. So I fell into the trap of thinking I just wasn’t good enough to be a writer. But I did discover that I had a knack for helping other writers find their way through revisions, and I enjoyed learning about craft and especially story structure, so I pursued editing—which was one of the best decisions of my life.

I truly love editing. It has always felt very much like it was what I was meant to do, extremely satisfying and very much a career of my heart. (I realize how privileged I am to have been able to do something I love for a living!)

Then, for reasons not related to my love of editing, I resigned from my in-house publishing job and went freelance. All of a sudden I had all this time, bandwidth, headspace I hadn’t had for fifteen years of working full-time for a publisher (which is really like multiple full-time jobs, which is a whole nother post’s worth of subject matter—if you’re interested, Sean Delone recently published a great piece that breaks down in-house editors’ jobs). I was used to hustling day and night so here I was, all, what do I do with these free evenings??? I read a lot—for fun (a rare treat in the years I worked in-house). I spent more quality time with family and friends. I let my mind breathe. And once she had a little oxygen in her, she surprised me.

I hadn’t planned on writing a book, but then a character—Ana—came to me. I kept thinking about her, building her out in my mind. And once she started to become more fully formed, it was hard to ignore her (as you’ll see when you read The Book Tour, Ana is nothing if not persistent). She followed me everywhere, almost demanding her story to be written.

So I asked myself the question that changed everything: What if I just try?

Worst that can happen is it sucks, and nobody has to read it or even know it exists. Best that can happen is I create something I’m proud of.

So I tried. And The Book Tour comes out exactly six months from today. 💛

Speaking of which…a preorder sale!

Barnes & Noble is having their periodic preorder sale from today through September 5th, where US buyers can get 25% off preorders online! Perfect time to preorder any titles you’re looking forward to reading—including, if you’re so inclined, The Book Tour. Use the code PREORDER25 to get the deal.

Thanks for reading! 💛📚