I titled this blog post "Editing in the face of uncertainty" because I have no idea what kind of audience there might be for this kind of linguistic legerdemain in a superhero book. For a long time, I let these doubts freeze me into thinking that this book might not be worth my time, that no one would want to read it, that I should abandon it and work on something better.
My Inner Critic insists that it's too niche, too weird, too obscure. It's not funny enough to be a funny book, not exciting enough to be an exciting book. The funny distracts from excitement, the excitement distracts from the funny and NOBODY is going to appreciate all of these word, grammar and language-based superpowers.
Well, tough shit, Inner Critic. I'm writing it anyway.
It's taken me quite a while to come to this point of realizing that the audience for this book is going to be a select one, to be sure. So be it. The audience for ANY book is going to be a select fraction of all readers.
Accept the uncertainty, keep writing, keep editing. If I'm having fun writing the book, I can only trust that that will translate into the text.
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I'll bet Lewis Carroll's friends said the same thing (people are not going to get this...) and look where he wound up. Or Norton Juster, who wrote "The Phantom Tollbooth". I thought you might enjoy this, if you haven't already seen it -- a discussion of how TPT came to be. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/17/111017fa_fact_gopnik
ReplyDeleteHang in there. I'm glad you're defying your inner critic and I can tell you that *I* want to read it, even if no one else does... (but I think they will).
I did read that piece. Great stuff. It's taken me a long time to get past the point of worrying about all the people who won't like this book. I'm trying to focus on the people who WILL like it.
DeleteI haven't read the New Yorker article, but there was an interview with Norman Juster on Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me last weekend. I bet it said pretty much the same thing, that he did everything everybody told him not to do, and it worked out really well. I struggle with the same thing. My inner editor's name is Tallulah after the Tallulah Gorge in North Georgia since she tends to bring me to the bottom. It can take a lot of effort to send her over the edge sometimes.
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For so long, I felt that I should limit my novel-length work to avoid to truly goofy stuff. It all ended up too bland, so I'm not going to give in to that impulse with this one.
DeleteIf you can hold that position, I envy you! Whatever you write won't please everybody or even most people but if it pleases you I think that's pretty wonderful.
ReplyDeleteI'll do my best to keep this perspective. It certainly has given me more freedom to actually write stuff, instead of worrying all the time.
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