That great book you read took hundreds of people working behind the scenes working to make the book appear in print. Those great movies aren't made by a few actors-actresses and a camera man. Thousands of people are involved before it is finished and that's not counting the promotions.
Computer crashes have wiped out so many stories I'm not even sure what I have or what editing cycle those I do have were saved at. Cathy, ever the brave soul that she is, mentioned she is going to tackle editing a novel. It is the first draft before it was ever edited. Correcting the grammatical mistakes was a herculean task the first time and second time until it was ready for publication.
I know from experience, editors put a lot more time and effort into cleaning up writer's stories than it took the writer to put it to paper. Those writers who write with colloquialisms are a nightmare to edit. Especially for editors who didn't grow up in the same time frame and the same part of the country or world.
Personally, editors are the unsung behind the scene heroes of writers.
Thanks Cathy. I didn't realize what a mess I dumped on you until I started looking at it a few hours ago. The HD the final draft is on is in my computer HD graveyard along with more than a dozen other hard drives. Me and these electronic beasts do NOT get along.
Comments
Bridget and The Professor
As a PS. Those who loved Bridget and Deity Arms should know The Professor edited that story. It's a little late to be giving credit due to The Professor for the effort that went into it. But, to The Professor, my heart felt thanks for making Bridget readable.
Oklahoma born and raised cowgirl
Backups
While I'll be the first to confess that I've lost stuff in computer failures or virus attacks, it's just more reason to keep current backups of all files. A outboard drive and program to backup all your data files on a regular basis is almost essential these days, particularly with today's huge HDs. An outboard 3tb HD can be had for around $100, and that's cheap insurance against data loss.
A cheapie backup is as easy as using an online email account such as gmail. Just email your stuff to yourself, then set up a special folder in your email account to save them to. Then as long as you have that email signup you can go online from anywhere and have your files.
As for editors, they must be getting hard to come by as I see too many stories that have not even been proofed at all. So if you have a good one then hang on to her, she's worth her weight in gold!
I went outside once. The graphics weren' that great.
What I use
I extensively use google drive as a backup and organizer for my writing. It also allows easy sharing to others if you need someone to review. This may not work for low speed internet, but then again, I only have 2.5 gb worth of 4G mobile broadband internet per month and I never go over while I'm in G Drive writing or working.
I also do the monthly backup to a 1TB external drive for everything not on Google Drive, and keep my writing backed up again to another 8gb thumb drive I keep on my person.
Internet High Fives All Around
Stardraigh
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My Deviantart
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Are you sure the HD is dead?
Are you sure the HD is dead?
If the platter, arm, or head is broke kind of dead, then yeah it's dead.
With most things other than that the data is recoverable.
Internet High Fives All Around
Stardraigh
( •_•)>⌐■-■
My Deviantart
(⌐■_■)
It ain't dead...
...until Linux can't read it.
Even then, if it'll spin up at all, ddrescue might be able to scoop up some or all the chunks that contain your prose.
Even then it might not be completely dead...
Even then it might be possible to get the data off the disk...
Wiki how on repairing disks.
Having been both
Having been both an author and an editor, I can say amen to that. While the author, simply (OK, it's not really simple to get the plot and character development together, but you know what I mean)chugs along putting thoughts down, the editor has to wade through the narration with a thoroughness that would make the readers head swim. Then go through the dialog that uses unfamiliar colloquialisms, making it necessary to scour the internet for uses and meaning to see if the characters really said what the author wanted them to say, which the editor is only guessing at.
I recently edited a piece gratis for a friend and we had a great discussion about whether he could say a particular animal was "a herbivore" or did he have to say it was "an herbivore." We settled on the character making the statement, being in academia would probably pronounce "herbivore" with a silent H, making "an" the correct way. Though the authors personal pronunciation sounded the H.
Just one of the many things editor go round and round with authors about.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Cherish your editor
When Holly passed, I lost a friend and an editor I could trust. I haven't had a story edited since, with the exception of one slight fling. I try to edit my own work and as usual I don't do a very good job. I've found if I wait a period of time and go back through my work, I'll see things I missed during the first edit. I'd really like to find someone to look at my stories before I publish them, but I feel as though I'm imposing to ask. Most of you know my stories are very long and it doesn't seem fair to be asking someone to spend the huge amount of time editing. The only problem with editing, myself, is that I know what the story says and mistakes are easily over looked. If you have an editor be kind and love them like a family member, Arecee