Writing is hard. Revising is hard too—in fact, often, it’s even harder. And both are so much more difficult and challenging than you ever imagine the first time you sit down to write a novel, or a short story, or a memoir. As you work and work and work in pursuit of perfection, and as you deal with feedback from beta readers and book editors like me, encountering again and again everything you’re doing wrong, you can’t keep the thought from squirming its way into your head:
Does this suck? Do I suck?
Note: This is a guest post by Developmental editor Harrison Demchick. Harrison came up in the world of small press publishing, working along the way on more than eighty published novels and memoirs. He’s also the author of 2012 literary horror novel “The Listeners” and short stories including “Tailgating” (Tales to Terrify, 2020) and “The Yesterday House” (Aurealis, 2020), and as a screenwriter his first film Ape Canyon was released in April 2021. Harrison is currently accepting new clients in fiction and memoir at the Writer’s Ally
Speaking as an editor who has worked on many, many novels and memoirs over the last fifteen years: probably not. Or at least no more than everyone else.
But whenever it should happen that you find yourself convinced of exactly the opposite, here are some important ideas to keep in mind.
First Drafts are Never Final Drafts
Ask any editor if an author has ever sent them a perfect first draft and you’ll probably get the same answer: No. Never. Not even close.
I’ve certainly never seen one. I sure as heck haven’t written one. And the very simple reason for that is that you discover the story you want to tell through the process of writing it. This is true whether you outline and plan carefully and revise as you go or fly by the seat of your pants toward a completed draft, because under any circumstances things change during the writing. It’s so hard to see the forest while you’re still planting the trees.
It’s true as well that every next draft has a considerable advantage over the first: the previous draft. Once it’s there, and you’ve written it, you can see what works and what doesn’t. You can see what you were trying to do all along and where you missed the mark. And you need that knowledge to write a truly great manuscript.
In other words: Of course the first draft isn’t perfect. You don’t have all the information yet. How could it be?
Everybody Makes Mistakes—and Usually the Same Ones
Are you struggling with overwriting? Or underwriting? Are you having trouble developing conflict and tension throughout the manuscript? Or determining your characters’ motivations? Or building effectively through the rising action toward the climax?
Well, there’s good news, and it’s good news you’ll discover anytime you find yourself surrounded by other writers: We’ve all been there. Not only do we all make mistakes in our writing, and encounter challenges while writing, but in fact they’re usually the same mistakes.
That’s the entire reason an editor like me can write posts like this. Trust me—we’ve seen it all.
Now, to be fair, no two writers are exactly the same. We all have our strengths and weaknesses. Some writers can craft setting with such effortless perfection it makes you want to toss your laptop off a cliff and take up stamp collecting. But that same author may struggle enormously with moment-to-moment continuity. Another author may have a steel trap for consistent details about their characters, but stumble when it comes to the rhythm of dialogue.
But still your failings are no worse than anyone else’s. They just happen to be yours. So if you suck for making whatever mistakes you make, so does everybody else.
Your Favorite Authors Suck Too
And I do mean everybody.
The thing about chasing perfection in our writing is that we’re not usually comparing ourselves to the electricians, government bureaucrats, and stay-at-home parents writing their first draft of their first novel. Instead we compare ourselves to authors we know and books we love. A fantasy novelist compares himself to J. R. R. Tolkien. A middle grade author tries to be Beverly Cleary. A magical realist holds up their work beside the novels of Salman Rushdie.
And that’s not fair—not because they’re necessarily better than we are, but because we’re comparing our early drafts to their final drafts. These books have undergone revision after revision after revision. They’ve been battered by editors. They’ve been rejected by publishers. And the authors who wrote them have struggled to overcome their own weaknesses, and to push themselves to make it through the revision process. They’ve stayed awake deep into the night questioning their life choices. They’ve doubted themselves.
In other words, they thought they sucked.
If your first draft doesn’t resemble your favorite author’s final draft, it doesn’t mean you suck. It means you’re human. And so are they.
Writing is Learning
I say sometimes to aspiring writers that the difference between a writer and an author is the revision process. What I mean by that is that it’s the act of developing a draft—of taking criticism, and responding to it, and improving your work and your skills in the process—that leads your manuscript to the very best version of itself.
The reason is that writing, fundamentally, is learning. It’s learning to be a better writer. It’s learning to craft a great story. The more you work, the more you grow.
Does that mean that everyone has a genuine literary masterpiece in them? No, I wouldn’t say that. I aim to encourage, but talent does exist. Some have more of it than others, in the same way I could never have been Lebron James even if I trained and practiced slam dunks and three-pointers every day from the time I was a toddler.
Not everyone is a genius. But everyone can be a better writer than they are today. Everyone can craft a better manuscript than they have so far. You just have to be willing to put in the work and develop as an author through the experience.
If you do, the book you wind up with will not suck. In fact, it might just be the most satisfying thing you’ve ever done.
And all that self-doubt? Well, it’s just one more thing nearly all authors have in common. Those thoughts never go away entirely, but as long as you don’t let them stop you, you will create something amazing.
