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Robin Hood: Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent."
— Robin Hood: Men in Tights
Here's a bit of unsolicited advice on how to choose an editor.
Just like hiring a plumber or an electrician, getting recommendations from friends is always a good idea. Send private messages to other writers who have used editors - people who have posted stories you like, or stories you know are easy to read.
Be careful. Don't jump at the first offer you get, because the person who volunteers may not know his or her ass from his or her elbow when it comes to helping a new writer find his or her feet. Look at the editor's stories, or stories from other people he or she has worked with - are they significantly better than what you've done on your own? If they aren't, what could they possibly do to help your work be better?
If possible, see if one of the authors on the site you respect would be willing to mentor you. Look for someone with skills that make their work look and feel professional, like a book you'd pick up in a bookstore. After all, if you want to learn to dance, you choose someone who knows the steps, right?
Finally, take your time and choose your editor wisely. It's a partnership, and you should be able to work well with the editor you've found. There's lots of give and take (and mutual respect). I've edited before, and I loved it. My one fear was overstepping my bounds and taking control of the writer's story, so I learned to be extra careful.
Remember, you 're looking for someone who knows a lot more about the art and craft of writing than you do, and is willing to share that knowledge with you — to teach you, so you can learn to make your own work better. The worst thing you could do is find someone who will teach you their mistakes and wind up hurting your work instead of helping it, simply because they don't really know how to be an editor, or a teacher.
There are lots of really good writers and editors here in the Big Closet, folks. So good hunting!
Comments
More unsolicited advice....
.... on choosing an editor.
Don't feel you have to. Have one, not choose one, that is.
It is not obligatory. Many from Chaucer onwards didn't and yet seemed to muddle through.
I am not even sure that good writers would necessarily make good editors come to think of it. I know absolutely nothing about it but ignorance emboldens me to venture that the skills required might be different. Not necessarily of course but quite possibly.
And even if they aren't might there not be a tendency on both side to draw together so that over a period of time the two, mentor and disciple, become indistinguishable; the one approving that which resembles her own work, the other trying to emulate the other's work, gaining the other's approval?
For example if I were to edit anyone's work it might be that over a period of several years he or she might, unwittingly and with the best of intentions, fall into the altogether reprehensible habit of starting sentences and even, heaven forfend, paragraphs, with an 'And' and thus suffer the scorn of all right thinking people. Better by far surely that they had been left to develop their own sweetly individual idiosyncratic faults.
So cherish an editor if you have one but don't get obsessive about the need for one if you haven't. Enjoy to the full all the advantages of the amateur, chief amongst which is that nothing matters in the slightest as long as it pleases you.
Hugs,
P.S. This is in no way intended to contradict or gainsay any advice that Randa gives. Nor to even hint that she may be prone in her writing to slip below the highest standards, nor be less than an invaluable boon to any lucky enough to benefit from her editing. I rate her and her work far too highly for that. It is merely to urge the point of view that one can write and enjoy the experience without one. Without an editor that is.
P.P.S. It occurs to me that all this ending of sentences with 'that is' is sloppy and altogether bad practice. Or even worse could be categorised as a cheap oratorical device. So don't ever use it! The 'that is', that is.
P.P.S.S. or alternatively P.S.S.S. etc. This is befittingly typed on a keyboard specifically adapted, and at no small expense, to replicate my English accent.
The difference between an Editor and a Writer...
...is that an Editor probably shouldn't have much, if anything, in particular to say. For a Writer, knowing what they want to say is paramount, and where the Writer and Editor meet is *how* whatever is meant to be said is communicated.
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
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Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
I do my own editing...
But I won't do editing for anyone else. I've tried it before, my suggestions were always taken badly. My own fault, probably.
I'm really not the "teaching" type when it comes to anything, for me, I simply do something right once and I from then on know exactly what to do forever thence. It's called a kinesthetic memory, and I have an extremely strong one. I literally cannot get lost - if I go the wrong way, I can simply retrace my route exactly as I took it.
Strong kinesthetics make terrible teachers. Because we pick things up so quickly, we cannot understand others when they cannot, and it leads to both sides inevitably becoming quite exasperated with each other.
I doubt I'm really all that great at writing or editing my own writing, to be honest, but by now I'm stuck in my ways and an editor would just butt heads with me. :P
Abigail Drew.
And to add a different..
And, to add a different thought...
"Test Drive" your editors. For the relationship to work, the editor's style must be palatable to you. That is, you need to be able to take the suggestions/comments/criticisms and use them to make your work better - and not be offended by them.
Some Editor's styles are such that they come across as telling the author what to do, others as suggesting options, others as questioning. There are many more editing styles and approaches.
If you're in the market for an editor (or three), ask them if they'd be willing to do a "test edit" on a bit of your work (say 3-5,000 words). That gives them a lot to look at, and should give you a feeling for how they edit and whether you can work with their style.
Ask around too. There are quite a number of folks on the site that do editing and proofing (two separate things!). Get what you need.
Best luck,
Anne
Being an Editor
I'm trying my hand with an author as an editor for the first time. Here is my take...
1. A lot of editing is simple proofreading. I suppose this is inevitable.
2. I need to pay attention to the story. I'm looking for glaring inconsistencies, or omissions. Basically looking at the flow, and make sure the story hangs together as a coherent whole.
3. If I see a problem with the base story, I might suggest alternatives or ideas. Respect the author though, a story is their baby, if they don't want criticism of the story line respect that wish. I can help, but it is their story. Don't forget that. If it bugs me that much (and it won't, I'm a pretty calm guy) I can always quit, but I am not there to write anything for their story.
4. I do expect the author to present the story to me in a format I'm comfortable with. In my case it is old style .doc Word single spaced. I can edit this. I can't edit some of the other word processor programs, but with cut and paste it is easy to move a document over. I'm working for free, and it is my only minimum requirement. Generally I highlight my changes by making the text red.
Any other takers? :D
Editing
If you're using Word then one of the tools allows all changes to be automatically highlighted in a colour of your choice (red shows up well). The writer can then easily either accept or reject the changes when they get the document returned.
I use an ancient copy of Word 97 which seems to work OK with Win 7 even though each time I open it, it claims it doesn't. Just as well, because I hate the latest version of Word which seems to be changed for the sake of change.
Robi
Editing with Open Office
Open Office also allows one to record and protect changes, and then go through them accepting and rejecting them as desired. It's a little simpler than WS Word's version of the feature, but entirely workable, as long as editor and writer use the same editor.
Another tool that works quite well is Google Docs, which is entirely Web-based, and allows an author to create shared documents which allow as many people as desired to access a given document with no need to swap files back and forth through eMail. This can be simpler for everyone, because it's fairly easy to become confused when swapping files.
For many writers (and editors) purchasing Word may be rather an expensive luxury, and the difference in price between the "Student" and "Office" versions accounts for the license, which for the student version allows no commercial work of any kind to be created, whilst the office version has no such restriction. If one eventually intends to publish one's work, or to do anything commercially-useful, it might be somewhat unwise to create the document in a student version of Word, even if one thinks that it would be impossible to catch one at it.
When you edit using Word, the programme communicates to Microsoft, telling Bill Gates' lawyers that the programme is being used, and what the serial number is. They use this information to ensure that one doesn't run two copies of the programme simultaneously, which is a violation of the license agreement, and so the programme tells you that you'll have to shut one copy down before it allows the session to proceed. Who knows what other information is being exchanged? And who might be willing to place an expensive bet with MS?
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
-
Cheers,
Puddin'
A tender heart is an asset to an editor: it helps us be ruthless in a tactful way.
--- The Chicago Manual of Style
Microsoft paranoia
Honestly... If you think like this about microsoft you have used too many apple products ^^
While microsoft might not be the most sympathetic software producer, they try to avoid scandals. Suing an author for using a student version of office for writing a novel would be such a scandal. They'd get more trouble than it would be worth.
I don't understand how you can spill this microsoft paranoia and recommend google docs before. Once google has any data, google will never remove that data.
Well whatever... I'd either use open or ms office.