This week my cyber-sister's book came out. I asked Glynis a few questions about the book and her other writing.
Edit
is a four-letter word! Where did you get that title from?
Don’t laugh but
the title literally popped into my head one night. I liked it and thought I’d
try to use it for an article for Writers’
Forum. Then the book idea came along.
This
is your first book. Where did the idea come from?
I noticed
on the Compass Books Facebook page that Suzanne Ruthven wanted a book on
editing. I’d been toying with the idea of combining some of my Writers’ Forum articles into an eBook
and realized 25,000 words wasn’t impossible. I thought at that stage I could
use some of my articles. This didn’t eventuate but the thought helped me
believe it was do-able.
Did
you enjoy writing it or was it hard work?
I loved doing
the interviews, discovering all the different ways other writers go about
editing.
And it was nice
spending time at our beach house every month to write a chapter. Did you notice
the sand between the pages?
But I hit the
middle of book slump I’ve heard novelists talk about. A couple of very hard
chapters stopped me in my tracks for a while.
You
have the credentials to write about editing. You’ve certainly sold enough short
stories. Which was your best year and how many did you sell?
2011 is my
record year with 57 stories sold. There’s still a
glimmer of hope in my eye that this record will be toppled. The difference
now is that there are fewer markets and also I’m spending more time writing
non-fiction than I used to.
And
how much editing do you do on your short stories before sending them out into
the world?
There are a few
which seem to arrive in my brain exactly how I want them to be. I’ll keep them
at least several days because there’s always something that jumps out at me by
then. But usually just a few words or a piece of punctuation.
Other stories
get chopped and changed a dozen times before I feel they’re ready to go out.
Once I’m happy
with a story I then need to make sure it’s right for the different markets I
send to. So I’ll end up with 750, 1200 and 1500 word versions of the same
story, for example.
When
writing Edit Is A Four Letter Word, how much did you learn along the way?
Far more than I
expected, to be honest. I think the
biggest lesson was to stop counting the edits and just get on with it. What
does it matter how many times we have to read something?
I found it
validating and reassuring to hear of best-selling authors agonising over their
work. Seeing mistakes when it’s too late to make changes. Feeling unsure.
Another big
lesson was knowing when to let go.
The material I
gathered from other writers contained the lessons I needed for editing my own
book. It couldn’t have worked out better really.
What
did it feel like when that parcel of books arrived and you first saw a copy, in
the flesh?
A truck pulled
up one morning as we were on the veranda having coffee. We were puzzled when a
courier came in holding a heavy white sack. It took a while for it to register
that these were copies of my book. I held one – and was still holding it at
bedtime. It’s still sitting on my bedside table.
Any plans for more books?
I’d
love another project like this. One I could work on for a week every month,
alongside articles and short stories. So I’ll be keeping my eyes open for
opportunities. And if any other titles pop into my brain during the night I’ll
write them down again.