Authors may be scared to show their drafts to others. Let's dance?

There is a moving and unusual chapter in a book called 'Writing for Social Scientists: How to Start and Finish Your Thesis, Book or Article', by Howard S. Becker (1986, Chicago University Press).

The chapter is by a guest contributor, Pamela Richards, and is called 'Risk'.

Naturally, many authors need feedback from others to improve their writing, but they may be afraid to show their drafts to friends and colleagues and peers who might make personal or damaging judgments about the author based on the unfinished draft.

Authors have to take the risk of being thought sloppy or stupid in order to not be sloppy and stupid!

Richards notes that: '..you have to trust your colleagues', but 'peers are hard to trust'.

She asks, 'Who can you trust?'

Her answer:

'When I think about the people I trust to read my work, I realize that they are people who already know how stupid I can be: the people I went to graduate school with, ... and a few people since that time whom I have come to know as friends as well as colleagues. People who knew me in graduate school have seen it all, and know that there's only one way I can go: up. They've seen my early attempts to write and think, supported me through that, and believed that there was something lurking there beneath all the confusion. So I trust them. And, not incidentally, they trust me.' (Richards In Becker 1986: 15-116).

Her chapter exposes the greatest weakness of the Research Cooperative, and also its greatest strength.

It is indeed difficult for writers to trust strangers they meet here and elsewhere through the Internet. But it is also possible, in our network, to build working personal and working relationships step by step. No other network is dedicated to this proposition, for the purposes of getting research published. This is our greatest strength.

Richards also writes:

'Our mutual trust comes from having struggled to overcome the structural barriers that originally divided us. Like all friendships, they're the product of those cautious little dance steps that move you closer together and then apart, near again and then farther away, each approach creating a bit more trust and concern. I have no prescription for creating those trusting relationships, though I wish I did.' (Richards, ibid: 116-117).

I wish I did too!

If we could create a universal prescription for trust, our network could be outrageously successful. This won't happen. All we can say is that building trust requires work by all parties involved in a writing and publishing project.

The work and dance steps needed depend on each combination of people involved.

For professional editors and proof readers, knowing how to build trust is part of the profession.

We have to be like doctors, taking the bad with the good, keeping calm and focused at all times, and respecting the privacy of clients.

How do members of this group deal with the risks that authors face, and the fears that they may have?