Samhain Publishing Ltd Weblog

Caution: I Run With VSEs

Okay, I had a choice for my blog today. Gush and wax poetic about my latest Samhain release, BEAUDRY’S GHOST , or talk about the team it took to bring this book to life.

On one hand, it’s all about me, Me, ME!!!

But on the other hand, it’s not. Authors generally don’t get far without something called an editor. Even those of us who are editors in our real lives know damned well it’s not a good idea to pretend we don’t need one for our own work.

We need a Very Sharp Editor (VSE). A professional with editing tools – and nerves – of surgical steel. Luckily, Samhain Publishing is front-end loaded with sharp.

May I just say, the problem with having a VSE is that they make you work. (Yes, that was a whine!)

The benefit? If you’re open to constructive criticism, a VSE can push you to grow your skills as a writer. Beaudry won awards in its first life as a Dreams Unlimited eBook. A couple years and another edit/revision later under the LTDBooks banner, it won another award, from the Independent Publishers of America.

And with Samhain Publishing, I had yet another chance to go back and revisit this book of my heart, this time with an editor who didn’t know its history and who could look at it with complete objectivity.

Let me tell you, it’s not a comfortable process to have what you thought was your best work at the time picked apart and analyzed, exposing every flaw! I learned a lot about how much my writing style has changed; things I used to be oblivious to are now some of my biggest pet peeves. I head-hopped. I let my plot wander down tangents that didn’t move the story forward. My characters’ motivations were unclear at best, and at worst, changed from chapter to chapter. I didn’t think deeply enough about how to set up the sequel. I basically spent most of my time making sure my historical research was on target – and I forgot to give the same attention to the rest of the book.

I was a writer with a measure of raw talent, but without the technical skills to make the story as effective as it could have been.

In the Fall of last year, as I clucked and winced over this manuscript, it made me wonder what readers and awards committees saw in it! I can only conclude that my love and passion for the time period, the characters, and the setting somehow found its way through the obvious mistakes. I poured my heart and soul into this story, and it must have showed.

It also proves to me that no matter how good you think your story is, there is always, always room for improvement. I’ve learned that for the good of the story, absolutely nothing about your writing can be sacred or set in stone. You must be willing to be ruthless in your quest to improve and hone your craft.

If you allow yourself to relinquish control to that degree, you leave the door open for wonderful things to happen.

I feel blessed that Samhain set Lindsey McGurk the task of guiding me to make this story the absolute best it can be – based on my skills at this time in my life. How many authors get a chance to do that?

I know she thinks I’m saying that so she won’t be so mean to me next time. But I have no illusions. She is already limbering up her whip to stand over me until I’ve turned in the sequel, which I’m sure she will dissect with the same diabolical cheer with which she deconstructed Beaudry.

Lindsey, darling… bring it on.

Carolan
www.carolanivey.com
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