Writing is a cerebral occupation, one in which many intellectual decisions must be made. For example, today I am going through my editor’s comments on Animals Welcome. I’ve worked with this editor before, and whenever she has questions or suggestions about a manuscript I pay attention because she is usually right.
In this book I had mentioned elk scat, and the editor wondered if kids would know what that is. Country kids, or the children of hunters, probably will; city kids probably won’t. Since I want all readers to understand what I say, I changed elk scat to elk poop. Every kid knows what poop is, and they’ll think the word is funny. Yes, I make many intellectual choices each day.