Coming this Christmas from Montag Press, The Big Cinch, a supernatural noir adventure by Kathy L. Brown. Sean Joye, a fae-touched young veteran of 1922’s Irish Civil War, aims to atone for his assassin past and make a clean, new life in America. Until he asks the wrong questions. . . 

I almost titled this journal entry “Creative Collaboration,” but in jotting down my thoughts realized my musings had a deeper core: how do I let go of a story? A story that I’ve lived with for years and years, that has morphed and developed in so many unexpected directions. Publishing it is like sending a child off to school. I’m proud, worried, and grieving, all at the same time.

Collaborative Creation

I don’t usually think about writing as a collaboration effort, other than the work of writing duos.  I’m decidedly a solo-effort writer. Writing is a solitary pursuit for me, although I seek input from writing classes and teachers, my writing group, and beta readers. 

As far as writing collaboratively goes, I see a spectrum from a diarist, who gets little, if any, outside input to the commercial writer or journalist, who’s constrained by other people’s opinions, the house style, and the project’s brief. Most of us are somewhere in the middle—we live alone with the story for weeks, months, and years, but then do share it with hopes of improvement from a smidge of outside input.

Beginning to Let Go

Many stories never see the light of day, but when they do, our personal, private tales begin to form relationships with readers. These relationships are out of the writer’s control. That reader doesn’t care what the author meant by their phrasing and word choice. Also, those readers bring their own life experiences to the plot, love or hate the characters based on personal preferences, and interpret the story voice in ways the writer could never imagine.

Once I’ve shown the story to someone else, the process of learning to let go begins, whether I like and accept it or not. I might pretend for a while to have control by concluding the beta reader is a weirdo or my classmates are too young/old to understand. But, deep in my heart I know the story is becoming more independent and it’s just a matter of time before it wants to borrow the car and twenty dollars.

A Grown-Up Story

Eventually, if a writer aims to publish, the story will become a collaborative effort. The story has gone out in the world and found playmates: editors, illustrators, designers, publicists, and vendors. It tells its poor old mother, “You’re not the boss of me.” That team of new friends have a vested interest in the baby, now all grown up, who was once your private darling.

And then comes the book readers (or painting’s viewers or music’s listeners). Most writers are also readers, so we know well the possessive impulses that we display toward our favorite art. And the freedom we feel to criticize what doesn’t measure up to our expectations.

Let It Go

All this verbiage is a way to tell myself that all is well. My story and I are in a natural and exciting part of its life cycle. Learning to let go and let others into the story is good for both of us. 

Do you have an inner perfectionist who doesn’t want to share? Comment on the blog. (Navigate to the blog on the website, click the title, and a comment box will open at the end of the post.)    

If you enjoyed this journal entry, you might like to read about Self Control.

I started this blog thread on the gritty details of the writing process over on my Facebook Author page, @kbkathylbrown, but decided it would work better over here. If you’re interest in following my writing process in an informal way, you’ll find a few posts on Facebook that might interest you. You can subscribe to the blog from the website landing page (scroll down).

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