Coping with Editing

Last week I received my manuscript assessor’s critique of my next novel, “Death on the Quay”. I contract a woman, an accomplished author, for that purpose so that I get a female perspective.

She wasn’t harsh but you could say she tore it to shreds. It was almost all valid criticism. Though before I realised that, it took me twenty-four hours of wondering if it was worth going on with the novel. I virtually lost confidence for a day in my ability to write at all and wondered if my 11 published books really had any merit (see those at thomaswdevine.com).

Though I wanted a woman’s perspective, I still found myself clashing with her views on a few issues, like would a woman do a sexual favour for a stalker if he threatened to murder her child if she didn’t? I thought so but my assessor thought it was unlikely.

Then there was the issue of her suggesting a scene be cut which I thought helped to show the lead character in the context of his office work and developed the portrayal of his character when faced with conflict. Still can’t figure out her viewpoint.

It’s all part of a writer’s life, I suppose.