Damn it.<\/p>\n
I recently got my manuscript back from the editing team. Their take overall was positive, but they more or less unanimously objected to a framing device I\u2019d used.<\/p>\n
As usual, it was because they just didn\u2019t understand what I was doing, that this was integral to the plot, it\u2019s an established device in the genre, don\u2019t they read, do you people know who I am?<\/p>\n
So, I went off alone to my corner to have my private misunderstood artist moment, to seethe and reflect on how unjust it is that I am doomed to walk alone as the only person who really gets it. Then I came back and reviewed their notes in detail.<\/p>\n
The thing that got me to stop and try a rewrite was that old convenient handle: guilt. Once a Catholic, you will always have that handle sticking out to be grabbed, even if you wind up President or shave your head, put on a robe and start selling flowers in the airport.<\/p>\n
My book manager said that \u201cI think it would be better of you changed it. You could get away with the device, but do you want to just \u2018get away\u2019 or do you want it to be something exceptional?\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, I still hold enough Irish Catholic working class self doubt that looking down my nose and directing him to publish it and stop questioning his betters, damn his eyes, just isn\u2019t on the table.<\/p>\n
So I swore, had a big drink, rolled up my sleeves, and went back to the trenches and rewrote it.<\/p>\n
And it\u2019s so much better.<\/p>\n
Maybe I\u2019m not the only one who understands my art.<\/p>\n
Damn it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Damn it. I recently got my manuscript back from the editing team. Their take overall was positive, but they more or less unanimously objected to a framing device I\u2019d used. As usual, it was because they just didn\u2019t understand what I was doing, that this was integral to the plot, it\u2019s an established device in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[34,29,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-86","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-irish","category-recovering-catholic","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86\/revisions\/87"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inkandbourbon.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}