Kelly Nugent
asked
Laura Buchwald:
Congratulations on The Coat Check Girl! Because you're a successful editor as well as a published author, do you ever struggle with the technicalities of writing hindering your creative flow? Is there anything you consciously do during your writing process to accomodate both the editor and the writer in you?
Laura Buchwald
Great question—yes, being a writer who edits can be challenging, but as a wise person advised me, when you're writing you have to hang your editor's hat at the door. Easier said than done, but absolutely necessary in order to bang out that messy first draft. If you get too precious with word choice and sentence structure and perfection while drafting, you risk leaving out some of the vital energy of your story, what one of my writing coaches calls the "life blood." This is easier for me with book two, which I'm writing under a strict deadline—I can't spend time editing because I have to go for volume at this point, so I'm writing it all with reckless abandon and the knowledge that I have a LOT of editing to do once this draft is done. This is what I advise all the writers in my life (who seek my advice) - get that draft out there, it's supposed to be a mess, and more often than not you'll be surprised at how many beautiful sentences exist among the unedited chaos.
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