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I just wanted to take a moment to tip my hat to all the wonderful editors out there. Without you, writing decent fiction would be a lot harder. I'm still amazed to find people willing to put time aside to look through what someone else has written and provide honest, meaningful advice.
In particular, I'd like to tip my hat to my own editor, Angela Rasch (aka JillMI). Not only has she helped me with things like spelling and grammar, but she helped me to dig deeper into myself to bring out parts of stories that might have never been written if it wasn't for her encouragement.
:: tipping hat again before stepping from soapbox ::
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Heather Rose Brown
Author of Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
Comments
Editorial volunteers and Masochism
I guess I'm a masochist. Call me. :- ) Chelle
Chelle
Good for something
I'm not an editor, I just do proofreading and plotholes. My narrow interests in stories also limits my ability to help. Its almost impossible to do a credible job of proofreading if you're not able enjoy the original storyline. But on occasion, I've been able to be of some help and it gave me great joy to be able to do that.
Cindy
And it can be difficult to be
And it can be difficult to be a good editor if one really enjoys the story too. I've had occasion to get lost in the story and forget to do the proofing. 8*0
Deni
Hear Hear, and Huzza!
A good editor is worth their weight in gold or butter pecan ice cream.
I submitted a couple quick BotC chapters here, and had great fun with it. I have yet to post my edited stuff here, but over at The Crystal Hall, Bob Arnold's Whateley Academy site, I've gotten generous help from several people, in particular, Itinerant of Amazon fame. My last few chapters of Timeout 3 have been far easier to read, with few if any confusing passages. Oh and my speln'is muck beater/much better. He's an invaluable sounding board for my musings.
I sometimes wish I could steal Amelia_R away from Itinerant. She graciously has offered some great tips to me and I have tried to impliment many of them. My writing is much better as a consequence of their kind assistance.
Feed back from readers is invaluable as the mind of the author fills in the missing bits as IT knows how the story should read.If it was just for the grammar and punctuation, he'd be a big help.
Thanks to all who give thoughtful advice and criticism.
Oh, Itinerant, how's chapter 9 coming? -- ducks head in anticpation of violent retribution from across Lake Michigan --
Thanks for prompting a lond, um, long overdue tribute to editors, just did the graphic have to be so big?
John in Wauwatosa on a dial-up connection
John in Wauwatosa
The Incredible Shrinking Graphic
Sorry about the graphic, John. I just shrunk it. Hope that works better. :)
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Heather Rose Brown
Author of Bobby's Rainy Day Adventure
The Family that Stays Together
Thanks for shrinking the graphic.
Some of us midwesterners are cheap and refuse to pay for Surely Bad Crap DSL or Wiener Cable until it's necessary, as if 50+ meg 'Critcal Updates' to Windows XP aren't sufficent inducement. POTS has been very good to me. It's not like I'm a penny pincer, I just love to hear Lincoln scream. -- you may insert rimshot here --
Us people with 'colorful' last names need to stay together.
Thanks from John in Wauatosa
John in Wauwatosa
Thank You
Heather -
Your compliments are appreciated.
It's strange how the same person can be accurately described by two different sets of people as "strong-willed" or "pigheaded." The first group tries to see the positive in what the person does while the second group tries to see the negative.
An editor can only work with an author who accepts her comments as positive and constructive. If the author's first reaction is to defend -- rather than self-examine her piece based on editorial comments -- the process grinds to a halt.
No editor expects a writer to roll over and play dead, accepting every proposed change. The end product of such a uneven partnership would be an abomination. The author is the only one who knows what she wants to say. The editor is in a great position to tell her what at least one reader thinks she "is" saying. Sometimes the gap between what the author thinks she is writing and what she has written is quite wide.
A good editor seeks neither to change an author's style nor story. If you find your editor to be too dictatorial and demanding, you need to change editors before they harm either your creativity or your product.
The best editor is the author. She should comb the internet for the dozens of self-editing tutorials and use those before sending her material to anyone else.
Self-editing works best when the author has the perspective of a reader. That necessitates the author set aside the piece for several weeks before self-editing.
Thank you again, Heather. It's a joy working with you. To successfully work with an author, an editor has to get inside the author's brain. I find yours to be like an old style bookstore -- clean, comfortable, inviting, and logically arranged.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Writer/Editor Interface
An interesting topic, to say the least! From my limited experience, the relationship between an author (such a grandiose term for my scribblings!) and her editor is complex, to say the least.
Jill has graciously consented to edit my stuff, and it's a fact that we don't always agree on how things should look. It's also a fact that her editing has made me take a step back and reexamine a story, resulting in a better tale being told.
A writer can become so attached to her work that she is unable to objectively evaluate it, and Jill has forced me to step outside of my self-love and really see the story. I imagine other editors do the same thing. At times, she reminds me of an old city editor I had on the newspaper, who used to remark that my stories looked as if they'd been written in blue pencil and edited with a typewriter. (Yes, this was long ago when reporters wrote on actual typewriters and the editors used a blue pencil to edit the copy.)
This is not to say that we always agree, oh no! But even if I don't make some of the changes she suggests, I know in the end I'll have a better story for having gone back and looked at it with a different perspective, tightening things up in the process.
I can only imagine what she thinks of my brain; undoubtedly it looks more like a junk store that's been in business for many years, with things piled haphazardly in the aisles. But I like to think that a few of those piles contain a treasure or two; or at least an occasional treat.
I've had to take a break from writing the last week or so; work and a lingering respiratory issue from long ago have conspired to pack my brain in cotton. But hopefully soon I'll be darkening her email inbox with yet more material to be beaten into shape. Then everybody will be treated to another story.
I couldn't do it with out a good, tough editor. This may be the only thanks I ever remember to give you Jill; so Thanks! And bless all the tough editors out there.
Love & Hugs!
Karen J.
PS: it occurs to me that she'll look at this unedited scribbling and want to return my next efforts unread! Sorry, Jill! The pills I'm taking have the side effect of making me even "blonder" than usual!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
Special People
I'll add my hat tip to my most excellent editor, Amelia_R, even if she keeps coming up with irresistable ideas that just *have* to be added to the stories.
;-) ;-)
Nicole (a.k.a. Itinerant)
--
Veni, Vidi, Velcro:
I came, I saw, I stuck around.
As an editor...
I make a good reader and proofreader. :) For some people in some places, that's all they really need. Real professional editors have to harden their hearts and be cruel to be kind, something that is simply beyond me without the incentive of a high six-figure income. Hoo-hah!
My kindest, (i.e. cruellest) editor was Mat Twassel to whose dedication and energy I owe a considerable amount of whatever skill I have devloped in the last ten years or so. Mat's unerring ear for sense and music helped me clarify my writing and his eye for the niceties of punctuation and structure helped me reach a comfortable co-existence with the gods of grammar.
God bless all editors and bless me too for I have edited. :)
- Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Don't need no schtinking commas!
People have made the mistake of asking me to pre-read and edit things for them and it is always a disaster. It starts out fine but soon breaks down as "This doesn't work" becomes "It would be better this way" and then "I would do it this way". I don't intend to but I start putting to much 'me' into the work (and I don't really think I'm a better writer even as I do it.). This made me wary (weary? quick, call an editor!) of editors, figuring everyone is like me. Also, I do (sometimes) like breaking a rule without a defensible reason (maybe too much beat poetry in my youth).
But it really doesn't work to always write by ear and it helps to have someone with more distance too; someone to say "No one but you remembers this person you mentioned once ten thousand words ago". Luckily there are willing and able people out there who aren't like me to keep things reasonable. And I was lucky enough to get someone to help me, to tell me when my words weren't doing what I wanted them to do. And be gentle in the process.
Hugs to all, extra ones to all editors, and some more for Amelia R.
Jan
Liberty is more than the freedom to be just like you.