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

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.