Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Thank you Dorothyd for suggesting I start a new thread on this topic.
I am such a perfectionist that before I send anything out, I rewrite, edit, rewrite again.
The problem with that is you can end up with work that has lost all its spontaneity so I'm very aware of the importance of 'keeping it fresh'.
We all have our own style and method of writing but when I have spent so long getting something 'just right' it's difficult when you get something back from an editor asking for more work on it.
I suppose that is better than a flat refusal, at least you know someone can see the potential in the piece.
I welcome others thoughts on this...
Comments
What was I writing? A short note to our daughters' school - but it had to be phrased just right!!
So I'm not the best person to give advice!
Established or not, they know what they want for their market and they wouldn't ask if it wasn't close.
There will come a point where you have written something to your best ability, and you have to send it out. The feedback you get, hopefully, will enable you to either expand on your work where needed, or give it a few tweaks, or if you are lucky you might get en editor's juices running and they want to see the whole story/novel/article.
When I first started out I found it difficult to change my work, under the belief that it didn't need changing, but of course it invariably did. 25 years later I'm fairly clued up. Every now and then an editor will ask me to change something they feel isn't right for them or their market, and I work with them and make those changes. A few words or sentences here or there won't hurt. I've been fortunate that they don't need huge swathes of text changing, so I can't speak from that angle, but on the whole a willingness to work with an editor, rather than against, brings its own rewards in the end.