Remorse

There is a sentiment which I am sure all writers experience that I have named Author’s Remorse. It is the sensibility that leads to editing, and I had a dose of it last night over yesterday’s WordPress post.

I haven’t deleted it yet, but I might, because it was terrible.

I am still trying to decide what the lesson is. Shall I be spontaneous on these pages, because that’s what one does in this setting, but reel it in when I am talking about my own writing? Will you think I don’t know how to edit when I leave the bad stuff out here?

Maybe I’m making too much out of it. It was honest, a little negative in spots, certainly not a promotional piece. I told the audience what Anzu is not, when I should have been saying what it is. The replacement can be found on Amazon Author Central this morning:

Anzu is a book for readers who enjoy discovery, who like to think, who want to be surprised by ‘aha’ moments, when one is motivated to turn back a few chapters and see if there was a clue to the thing just discovered.

I will be gratified if young readers take to it, but it’s written for people with experience in their lives. I hope it takes you someplace that is impossible to get to from here.

And, since editing is so important, I may not be done with it. Shall I speak of my ambition as a writer, the desire to write books with depth and insight, words that people want to read? How I would like to stake out my own territory within a genre that is overworked as space opera, and under-served along other lines?

Eh. Maybe. Right now I need to make breakfast.