? Baths threatened by water | Main | Super audio compact disc ?
October 03, 2003
Queen of the Bland
After the publication of the The Queen of the Damned, I requested of my editor that she not give me anymore comments. I resolved to hand in the manuscripts when they were finished. And asked that she accept them as they were. She was very reluctant, feeling that her input had value, but she agreed to my wishes. I asked this due to my highly critical relationship with my work and my intense evolutionary work on every sentence in the work, my feeling for the rhythm of the phrase and the unfolding of the plot and the character development. I felt that I could not bring to perfection what I saw unless I did it alone. In othe words, what I had to offer had to be offered in isolation. So all novels published after The Queen of the Damned were written by me in this pure fashion, my editor thereafter functioning as my mentor and guardian.
Anne Rice claims she needs no editor. “Let her edit cake,” ***Dave explains (and to whom the Flea owes this link). And this explains why I have stopped reading Anne Rice. It is a shame. Stephen King and Clive Barker are two more writers whose power obviated the obligated, but not the need, to be judiciously edited.
Posted by Ghost of a flea at October 3, 2003 08:40 AM
Comments
I must preface this by saying I'm not an author and couldn't begin to claim experience with the publishing industry. In my non-expert opinion it is pure hubris to claim that one's work is so perfect in its natural state as to warrant no other human correctives. I think just about every field of human endeavour benefits from a fresh pair of eyes to look over unfinished work, and evaluate what else might be done to achieve excellence.
Posted by: Chris Taylor at October 3, 2003 08:55 AM
Everybody needs an editor.
Angua (editor)
Posted by: angua at October 3, 2003 09:00 PM