Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Writing vs. publishing

This is the third, and last, time I've started this post. Whatever comes to me is not getting deleted. Teamwork is an interesting concept. The American culture of work has slowly evolved into one where teamwork and the ability to play well with others is celebrated. I work in one profession where I feel the quality of my service is amplified by the culture of teamwork, both within the institution and within the profession as a whole.

So, why have I chosen to write? There's a certain appeal to rarely having to deal with people, wearing whatever I want to work, and becoming absorbed in a world I've built. Those are all well and good and true, but there's another level to writing: publishing. Publishing is teamwork. You have the writer producing the story, the editor polishing the story, the cover artist depicting the story, and the reader bringing their own experiences and prejudices to the story. If any one of these team players were to drop the ball, the end product is not the best that it could be. I love being a writer, but I also appreciate that I am published thanks to wonderful teams of people.

2 comments:

Sherrill Quinn said...

Amen, sistah! :)

Sierra Dafoe said...

Kelly, you stole my topic! LOL! But you are so absolutely correct -- I could write the most brilliant story in the world (hey, I'm hypothesizing, here!), but unless I'm also capable of founding and running a publishing company, AND doing my own advertising, AND editing and line editing and typesetting and proofreading and marketing and everything else that goes into producing a book, then I had better darn well respect the fact that it's a joint effort! :p

-- Sie