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By Bonnie Jean Feldkamp

(Editor’s Note: For the Erma writing community, Bonnie Jean Feldkamp offers this behind-the-scenes view of the editing process for books in the Fast Women series, edited by Gina Barreca and published by Woodhall Press. Read her essay about Erma Bombeck in Fast Famous Women. Reposted by permission.)

Fast Famous Women is the fourth book in the Fast series edited by Gina Barreca and published by Woodhall Press. I have an essay published in each book — an honor I can only sum up by saying, “When Gina calls, you say yes.”

I want to be honest with my fellow Bombeckians about my experience as a part of this series. Edits happened. Rewrites happened. And I do mean they happened for every one of the essays I contributed to these books.

For Fast Funny Women, I rewrote and tweaked my essay’s ending no less than three times with Gina’s encouragement. I also made edits to my essay for Fast Fierce Women. My first submission for Fast Fallen Women was flat-out rejected with hopes I’d come up with something different. It was done with incredible kindness and encouragement, let me be clear. I submitted a much braver piece the second time.

That brings me to Fast Famous Women. I also received edit suggestions that prompted a rewrite for this one as well. With each editing round, I was told the decision was mine and that edits weren’t mandatory. It was up to me to take the advice or not.

Hear me now, fellow writers. Always do the edits. They are made with the intention of making your work as strong as it can be. In my 20-plus years as a writer, I have only walked away from one assignment mid-edits. (You can ask me for that story over a glass of wine at the next workshop on the Dayton Rivera).

Take editing for the compliment that it is. Because if you aren't being edited, you aren’t being published. I’ve learned to be open to the process and grateful for an editor’s keen eye, and this is especially true for working with Gina Barreca. I cannot sit in her classroom at UCONN though I long to do so. Instead, here by invitation, she offered me the opportunity to work with her and learn from her and the team at Woodhall Press. It means the world to me and I will continue to say yes whenever she calls.

One more thing: In the spirit of editing and honestly, I have one final post-production addition to my essay. I am no longer the opinion editor for the Louisville-Courier Journal like the essay states. Life does go on regardless of long lead times required for book publication. I do, however, continue to write stories through the lens of everyday people and as a syndicated columnist where my medium is still newspapers.

Our stories will always be important. Erma Bombeck showed us that every time she wrote. It is a deep privilege that I was entrusted with writing about her for this collection. I am so grateful.

— Bonnie Jean Feldkamp 

Bonnie Jean Feldkamp's award-winning syndicated columns are distributed in newspapers across the United States via Creators Syndicate. Her writing ties personal experience to current events to help readers empathize, relate and care. She’s been writing, publishing and mentoring writers for more than 20 years. Feldkamp is the former community engagement and opinion editor for the Pulitzer Prize-winning Louisville Courier-Journal as well as the former media director for the National Society of Newspaper Columnists. Her TEDx Talk “Contempt Versus Connection in Online Communication” aims to encourage productive discourse and foster commentary with compassion. She has taught workshops at the Writer's Digest annual conference, Erma Bombeck Writers' Workshop and various universities.