Every so often I come across someone saying that his or her work of fiction is “their baby”. I get it, of course: that piece of literary greatness is something they cherish; they have been working on it until their fingers bled and their brains squeezed out unto the pages. Yes, it is something to take pride in! But goodness me, I do hope that it is not their baby. I don’t have children yet, but if I treated my baby the way I treat my novel, I’d be whipping her, chiseling her, cutting off body parts and replacing them with new ones – I’d be experimenting with size and shape of limbs until I finally found something satisfactory. That’d be a gruesome Frankenstein baby right there.
I like to think of my work as a rough woodcarving. I scrape and vile the wood until I see some sort of basic shape, then I turn it around and work some more on it; in due course the carving will start to resemble something lifelike. When it’s finished, yes, I take great pride in it. Some stories and old books are very dear to me, because they represent a phase of my life that I have fond memories of. But that’s really as far as it goes. And that is why I can handle criticism and also why I think the publisher actually does know best if they were to tell me that certain parts have to be rewritten. So many people go into Self-Publishing because they can’t stand having to change what they feel is already the perfect story. They don’t like being told what their baby should look like. I say pooh to that. A great book is never written by one person alone and it is never entirely right when you’ve finished with it. As a matter of fact, I wish I had a professional editor frowning over Het Eiland in de Mist right now, telling me exactly what does and doesn’t work, and help me get through the parts I get stuck in. That’s be the best help ever.
4 comments:
Yes exactly!! We need to have the freedom to chop and change to make it the best novel we can and the willingness to let it go.
I understand how people grow attached to their stories, and it's fine really, if you've been writing for yourself or loved ones. But it's not fine if you're intending to send the manuscript to publishers, because you're bound to get rejected anyway. I've only ever tried to get one novel published - got rejected, didn't expect much anyway but thought there was no harm in trying. Looking back on it, I am SO GLAD that it got rejected. Wouldn't want that one as my first book, haha :D
Hmm I don't know. I think it's fine to be attached to your work, even when you're sending it in for publication. If you weren't attached to it, then it would by all means not be worthy to get published. I think you should stay attached to it, even when it is going to be published. It's yours, not your editor's, even though he/she may have helped a bit to shape it as close to perfection as possible. But in the end it is still yours.
I'm not very fond of the word 'baby' to describe my work (or anyone using it to describe their work) but I don't think you should take it as literally as you do :). In the end, I think it's just another word to give meaning to how much you've become attached to your work. And that's fine. I believe that you either can handle criticism or you can't, and I think that has little to do with being attached (one way or another) or not to your work. I get attached too, and I can handle criticism as long as I believe it's based on something.
Not being attached to your work and sending it to publishers anyway is in my eyes a definite rejection, because you're not standing behind your own work. So I guess I'm disagreeing with you here, for the most part ;) While I do understand you of course! :D
Well, there's attachment and there's attachment. I never said NOT to grow attached to your work :) Like I said in the post, I am very, very fond of my own (older) work, because it was - and still is - such a huge part of my life. And in case of Het Eiland in de Mist, also because I feel that it is something pretty good.
And of course, "baby" is not to be taken literally. I just really don't like the use of it. And I know people, old members of the Verhalensite for example, who felt that the editors "didn't understand the ART of the story". That's basically what I am opposing to :D
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