by Lynn Blackburn @LynnHBlackburn 

People tend to assume if you’ve written a book that you must be creative in many other areas. The reality is while you may be creative with words, that doesn’t mean you have one ounce of skill with fabric, color, or that you have a clue how to pick out a lamp.

I am one of those people.

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to develop a friendship with a wonderful designer. Her name is Lisa. I was terrified the first time Lisa came to my house. Embarrassed, even. What if she felt like my house was beyond help? Thankfully, she likes a challenge. She gets me. She shops at TJMaxx and Marshalls and is even more careful about my budget than I am.

She’s particularly talented at taking what I already have and re-arranging it in a way that makes so much more sense than the way I had it. She then brings in a few additional pieces, and asks if I like them. I can keep them or suggest we try something a little different.

Between the two of us, we wind up with a room that is still 100% mine, but it’s so much better than anything I could have come up with on my own. It’s my stuff, with a few new things I would have picked out if I’d had the sense to know how awesome they were, all pulled together into a cohesive whole.

About a week after my final edits had been approved for my first book, Covert Justice, I called Lisa for an emergency intervention. I had tried to go it alone. I had an idea, I went shopping, I started decorating. When I was done, my downstairs looked like the epicenter of a Hobby Lobby explosion. Lisa fixed it in two hours.

As she left, and I relaxed in a room that actually looked like the vision I’d had in my head, I couldn’t help but notice the similarities to the editorial process.

I was so afraid to send my first manuscript to my editor. Terrified. Embarrassed that she would read my words and deem them hopeless. As it turned out my editor wasn’t scary at all. She liked a challenge and she understood what I was trying to do. When I read through my edits, rather than crying or gasping in pain, I found myself laughing and chuckling at the remarks she made in the sidebar (well, most of the time).

She made suggestions for re-arranging things, slowing down the romance, and adding in more conflict. When it was all said and done, the book we wound up with is still 100% mine, but it is so much better than anything I could have come up with on my own.

No matter how many books I write, I will always need an editor. Someone to take a look with fresh eyes, make suggestions, and help me turn my vision into reality. Six books later, I still find the editorial process terrifying, but now it’s tinged with excitement and possibility and the peace of knowing when it’s over, the book will be something I’ll be thrilled to share with the world.

Do you have questions about the editorial process? Want to brag on an editor? Feel free to do that in the comments!

Grace and peace,

Lynn H. Blackburn loves writing suspense because her childhood fantasy was to become a spy—but her grown-up reality is that she’s a huge chicken and would have been caught on her first mission. She prefers to live vicariously through her characters and loves putting them into all kinds of terrifying situations—while she’s sitting at home safe and sound in her pajamas!

Her Dive Team Investigations series kicked off in 2018 with Beneath the Surface and In Too Deep (A SIBA Okra pick and Selah Award Finalist). The 3^rd book in the series, One Final Breath, released September 2019 and is a 2020 Selah Award finalist. She is also the author of Hidden Legacy and Covert Justice, which won the 2016 Carol Award for Short Novel and the 2016 Selah Award for Mystery and Suspense. Lynn lives in South Carolina with her true love and their three children. You can follow her real life happily ever after at LynnHBlackburn.com and @LynnHBlackburn on Bookbub, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.