Trimming the Deadwood and Other Painful Experiences

Last week a tornado hit our small town, which was quite a shock for this area of the Mid Atlantic. As roads again became passable, telephone poles replaced, electricity restored, neighbors gathered at grocery stores, churches, schools and work comparing the damage and sharing their experiences. Everyone pretty much agreed that they felt lucky it wasn't worse than it was. The damage to our farm consists of broken trees, some hanging precariously over fence lines. The man hired to remove the deadwood gave me the unfortunate news that many of my trees could not be saved. When a tree sustains so much damage and the interior is exposed, it is open to disease, infestation, and rot. My beautiful shade tree in a small paddock has to be completely removed, lest on some future date it dies and falls on the fence. This hard news made me think of writing, of course! How often do we look at our work in progress and procrastinate over making the necessary cuts...cuts that will be for the good of the whole story. The first draft of my last book, False Gods, eventually got a deadwood trimming of nearly 30,000 in order to tighten the plot, keep the pace moving, and eliminate fluff. Oh, but how we fall in love with our own fluff! At first, I snipped a few leaves and branches here and there. Then a few bare limbs. Eventually, I saw that whole chapters had to go. Clear the deadwood. Make way for new growth. Rev up that chainsaw and do what's necessary, no matter how hard it is to say good-bye to that lovely shade tree.

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There'd Be Days Like This, My Momma Said...

Happy Mother's Day to mothers of children, both the two- and four-footed kind. On Mother's Day I'm reminded of the kind of things mothers always said. Such wisdom for the ages as: "Wear clean underwear, what if you're in an accident?"  "Why? Because I told you so!" And one of my favorites, "If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all." Well, that's all well and good for polite company, but it doesn't do much good for book reviews...which brings me to the point of all this. Recently I received the dreaded horrible review. Yes, all authors know it is coming some day, but when you actually sit down and read the venemous words another human being is saying about your creation, your story, it stings. A lot. Every book is not every reader's cup of tea. I think we all realize this, but when you sit down to write a review, even an unfavorable one, say something helpful. Like when your mother criticized your clothes, your hair, your eating habits, she did it out of love and in an effort to IMPROVE you, not tear you down. That's my beef. This review did not say anything I could act on to improve my story and writing. The reviewer told me she cheered at the end of the novel not because of the events that unfolded but because she would not have to engage with my main character any longer. Ouch. But she did not say why she disliked the main character. Was she two-dimensional? Did she fail to grow with the story? Was she boring? That type of criticism doesn't help a bit. She also wrote that my writing was difficult to read. Huh? Okay, enough licking old wounds, you get the point. When I write a review, I first take into account the experience of the author. Is the author a big name with all the support a large publisher can bring to the table, such as a first rate developmental editing staff, copy editor, and glitzy graphic designers? Or is the author putting out a debut novel, maybe even self-published? I adjust my expectations accordingly. Also, if I have something unfavorable to say, I back it up with why I feel that way and often gives examples from the writing. Writers need reviews for marketing and for improving their craft. We don't need trolls sitting out there in cyber land waiting to take pot shots at us. If the bad reviewer scares us into a hole where we become afraid to publish our work, they've won. They've become akin to literary terrorists. So, dear writer friends, stay brave and put your stories out there. Make your mothers proud!

Updates and Revisions

My literary agent recently arranged for me to get the rights to several of my earliest works back, a “work” being a book. This sometimes happens when a publisher closes their doors or changes focus on the kinds of books they want to publish. When a writer sells book rights to a publisher, the publisher then has the “right” to publish the book for a specific time period in ways, shapes, and forms that are detailed in the publishing agreement, but that are also usually left up to the publisher.

This means an author usually has little to no say about what the cover looks like, or the size of the type, or whether or not it ever becomes an audio book. The tradeoff is typically excellent editing; the support of sales, PR, and marketing teams; and often, a hefty advance in anticipation of solid book sales.

One of the books I got back, Success Within, is eleven years old and used to be one of my most requested books at my horse clinics and at horse fairs and expos. Used to be, until I couldn’t get copies after the publisher sold out to a company that had no interest in this particular title. Long story short, I am in the middle of the last of the revisions of the book for an updated second edition, and it should be out in March. If you are interested, my website will have news of the actual publication date.

In doing the revisions, I was both thrilled and horrified to find how much I had grown as a writer these past eleven years. Granted, I had never been happy with the final edit of the initial book, but far beyond that, I really hope this second edition will be much better written, and far more engaging. I found some of the passages in the first edition simplistic and more than a few thoughts poorly explained. Horror rushes through me when I think of people reading this early work, but that feeling is mixed with huge pride that the book touched a great many lives.

As writers, we all constantly work to improve our craft. We, hopefully, learn to streamline words when needed, develop beautiful passages of prose and place them in the right places, and both cut to the heart of the matter and communicate our point in ways that leave the reader wanting more. That is not an easy task and writers struggle every day to make that happen. When it does, we rejoice! As time goes on, the idea is that we should improve in this and in doing this rewrite, I am very glad to see that I have.

This process of updating and revising, and the strengthening of my craft of writing, is not all that different than what most of us do with horses. We constantly learn about the horse and find new ideas that will improve communication. Periodically, we reject older methods for ones that work better for the horse, and revel in the beauty of those rare moments of perfect partnership. In that way, the craft of writing and the art of riding are not all that different. 

Lisa is the author of My Horse My Partner and Horse Country, among many other books, and the award-winning Cat Enright cozy equestrian mystery series, now optioned for film and television. When not writing, Lisa is a therapeutic riding instructor who consults with PATH and other centers about their horse herds. She splits her time between Tennessee and Minnesota.