Someone who writes is inclined to call himself a writer. Attachment to the label brings with it concern for the reader’s response to what is written. This limits the writer’s freedom—in this case my freedom—to fully express myself, and to do it in my own truly personal way. As my writing progresses, I tend to keep constructing and reinforcing the world I have created for my audience. I drift further and further away from my uniqueness. In time, I become the character I created and can only write from the consciousness of this character.
To protect myself as much as possible from this phenomenon, I hand my raw material first over to editors, and then to a sample audience. Their job is to remodel my work into something suitable for consumption. In the same way I become my created character, I become each reader and re-approach my work from his/her perspective.
I suppose I could have the final word on my works’ finished form, but I consider them to be collective efforts. I write from the heart, and at the same time I write to communicate, so I value the contribution others make to the digestibility of my writing. The process works well for me, as it allows me to write free of outside considerations.