Writing is Hard

Anyone who has ever sat down with a blank page in front of them, looking to express something impactful, knows that putting your thoughts into the written word with enough clarity and eloquence to evoke a desired response is the inherent challenge of writing.

Whether it is a manuscript swimming in your head or just an important email you need to send, the challenge of writing isn’t an easy one. It requires discipline, clarity, and a willingness to cut out extraneous thoughts and ideas to which we may feel attached.

But many worthwhile endeavors are difficult: running a marathon, learning a new language, scaling a mountain, or fighting for policy change.

These are grander examples, but they all possess the same inherent qualities necessary for success as writing: discipline, clarity, and a willingness to abandon the extraneous.

Fortunately for writers, they have the ability to partner with a kind of trainer or sherpa of their own: the editor.

We’ve written much here about the process of editing, and we’ve done so because we believe it is essential to an author’s success. And we don’t only mean commercial success; we mean the successful attempt to take an idea (the ethereal) and put it into meaningful communication (the concrete).

After all, one could easily be described as foolhardy for attempting to scale the face of Everest without a guide.

At First Flight Books, our editors work in constant collaboration with authors to hone, to refine, and to guide them toward a final manuscript that lands at the heart of the original idea, making it a concrete expression that is uniquely their own.

Our authors form lasting connections with our editors during the process of bringing a book to life and ideally come out of the experience with not only a final manuscript, but also with a deeper understanding of their own authorial voice and writing style.

These partnerships are what First Flight Books offers to all our authors, and they are also what set us apart from both the industries of self-publishing and mainstream publishing. In the former scenario, authors aren’t able to tap into editors with track records of success. In the latter, authors are often (usually) subjected to a kind of “black box, take it or leave it” editorial process from which they are largely (or completely) excluded.

First Flight Books offers authors a third path forward, one in which they are guided, not dictated to. One in which they are partnered with, not left trying to find their own way without a map.

The blank page may still feel daunting, but you don’t have to do it alone.