How Much is Too Much?

[rolanni]

Today's question for the group mind: How much editing is Enough; how much is Too Much; and d'ye ever crave more?

kinzel and I are ...fortunate, I suppose the word is... in generally being edited lightly. This comes with its own set of terrors, of course, and it's not at all unknown for us to impose upon friends to beta-read our latest novel and ask them to Do Their Worst.

However, out there in ListWorld, I've been reading tales from writers -- many of them multi-published authors who clearly know what they're doing -- whose editors edit their proposals, to the extent of not letting them continue on what I consider to be the Real Work -- that would be, writing the book -- until the proposal is up to the editor's standard. This seems beyond foolish to me, but what do I know? My feelings about proposals are ambiguous at best.

Comments

Crystal Soldier

[jack_calls_dances]

I don't know if editing would have made a difference in this or not, but....

My fiancee and I have now both read CS -- she's read it once and I've read it twice. Even after the second time, I was still left with questions, the answers to which seemed perfectly clear to the characters, but not to the reader. In particular: What was Jela's mission? Yes, he's supposed to be getting in contact, but why is he doing what he's doing? Jela's storyline in general left me with many unanswered questions. Perhaps they're going to be answered in the next book, but it felt like there were things that were either cut from this one or just left out that might should have been added or left in.

Re: Crystal Soldier

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Hm.

See, I don't think being "left with questions" is a Bad Thing at the end of a novel, as long as the Whole Point of the Book isn't left a mystery. With Crystal Soldier specifically, you have to remember that it's the first half of a Really Big Book, so it might be that your questions will be answered in the second half. Or not.

Re: Crystal Soldier

[jack_calls_dances]

I suppose that depends on what the Whole Point of the Book was. If it was to be a self sufficient story outside of the other Liaden books, or an entry point for the other books, I'm not sure it made it -- too many questions of what the characters' motivations were (though these may indeed be answered in the next book, which I eagerly await). For me, as a reader of the other books, it answered a number of questions and started putting a bunch of previously un-assembeled pieces together for me. I was just left at the end of the book thinking that there were things missing....I'll be glad to let you know whether those pieces are found once I read Crystal Dragon

Re: Crystal Soldier

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

I suppose that depends on what the Whole Point of the Book was.

To tell an engrossing story as well as we could, mostly; and to honor promises made.