I have to admit that I had been feeling pretty stressed out while my editor at Ten Speed Press, Lisa, has had been giving my manuscript for The Piercing Bible its first developmental edit. She sent it back tonight with this delightfully positive comment:
Hi Elayne, Wow, I feel like I've spent a lot of time with you this week! That's how well your fabulous voice shines through in this manuscript. It's clear, authoritative, informative, with little bursts of humor to keep the reader interested. Well done!
I'll admit I had a HUGE grin plastered on my face after reading that! Enormous!
UPDATE: It may come as a surprise to those who have read much of what I've written (and I have written A LOT over the years), that I don't have much confidence in myself as a writer. Fortunately--and more importantly--I've got a great deal of confidence in my piercing abilities. Certainly that's the more critical skill, since I am a professional piercer!
Even though I'm the author of what has become the best-selling, mainstream book on body piercing, and I have been writing a monthly magazine column (for Pain Magazine) since 2006, I don't identify as a writer. In addition to penning my book and a dozen articles a year for over a decade, I've written countless blog posts, and tons of materials and publications for the Association of Professional Piercers, and more. But I feel more like a piercer who manages to write.
It doesn't come easily to me and I struggle pretty intensely with knowing when to stop editing. My monthly 1200-word article takes me days to compose and perfect. Ah, and therein lies the rub. I describe piercing as an excellent profession for an individual with perfectionistic tendencies--and would say that writing is...not. It is just too subjective. I know exactly when a piercing is perfect. But how can you tell when a sentence is perfect? That, for me anyway, is significantly harder. Still, I'll continue to write as much as I can on the subject of my passion, because there are precious few in my industry who are so inclined to share information in written form. (A notable exception is Jef Saunders' Confessions of a Piercing Nerd, a wonderful and well-written blog directed to piercers!)
