🚀 go-pugleaf

There is a whole other context in which one can discuss rewriting: responding
to reviewers' comments on drafts of chapters of a textbook.  I recently
completed writing an Introductory Statistics text for college students, those
primarily in psychology.  It was to take one year, it took four (it's
due out next week, yea).  One reason the book was so long in the making
was because of the unreliability among the reviewers.  This one loves a
section, that one hates it.  This one wants certain material included, that
one wants it deleted.  Having never written a book before, and feeling
unsure of myself, I fell into the trap of trying to please everyone.
The process of rewriting, reorganizing, rewriting, reorganizing, ad infinitum,
created endless frustration.  The material improved, but in a most
inefficient way.  Toward the end of the project I realized that I must
share much of the responsibility for what was happening.  My vision of
what the book should be was not clear enough.  It also helped that my
"need for approval" had diminished and I became less afraid of displeasing
any one reviewer.  By the way, the Psychology Editor was not at all
helpful since the nature of textbooks is that the content is technical and,
thus, beyond the expertise of the editor.
As an aside, is there any interest in setting up a bulliten board for
writers in the sciences?  The issues that arise in this genre are
different than when writing fiction, or when writing for the "public."
Also, would it not be helpful to establish a discussion on the
emotional aspects of writing--the isolation, the effects on one's
social life, frustrations, fears, the list is practically endless.  These
aspects of writing cut across genres.