It's also my editor's birthday. Happy birthday, Maya!

Having an editor is a weird experience and I love it. I didn't really know what an editor did before I started this process of writing a book. It's completely separate from, like, copy-editing and making sure all the punctuation and stuff is in the right place. It is a process of like, taking the book, and like finding the weaknesses and making them strong and, then, and also, like, big structural changes. And the process of going from, like, the final manuscript that I made, to the thing that is the book.

It's like the difference between getting into a car that you've been driving for the last five years, and there's a lot of dust everywhere and a bunch of wrappers and just some, like, dried-up Coca-Cola schmutz in the cup holder. You're basically thinking to yourself, "I didn't realize how awful everything was until I sat down in a clean car," and that's terrifying, the moment when you realize how dirty your car is. But it's also wonderful because you get to – together – polish it up, make it perfect, so that whoever's coming along to get the car next-

The metaphor broke down. It's okay. It happens. This is the kind of thing that would be worked out in editing.