I’m about to start revisions to my recently contracted book, Breathe, so I thought I’d share some quotes on editing and working with an editor.

“You can never read your own book with the innocent anticipation that comes with that first delicious page of a new book, because you wrote the thing. You’ve been backstage. You’ve seen how the rabbits were smuggled into the hat.”
-Margaret Atwood

“…You generally start out with some overall idea that you can see fairly clearly, as if you were standing on a dock and looking at a ship on the ocean. At first you can see the entire ship, but then as you begin work you’re in the boiler room and you can’t see the ship anymore… What you really want in an editor is someone who’s still on the dock, who can say, Hi, I’m looking at your ship, and it’s missing a bow, the front mast is crooked, and it looks to me as if your propellers are going to have to be fixed.”
-Michael Crichton

“You write to communicate to the hearts and minds of others what’s burning inside you. And we edit to let the fire show through the smoke.”
-Arthur Plotnik

Tomorrow I’m starting the revisions. Wish me luck.
Sloan