In fact, what you’re reading obscures many realities of a writer’s practice. By the time a book-buying (or -borrowing) audience sees these words I will have revised, edited, and polished them several times.1 Trusted readers will have offered feedback. An editor at the publisher will weigh in with his own thoughts. A copyeditor will help polish everything to the highest possible shine. In fact, what I am typing in my initial drafts and what you read in the final version may be quite different in the wording and presentation, even as the idea I’m trying to express remains constant.
