Tag Archives: editing
Hint
If you decide to remove a character at some point in a story, make it one of your duties to go through and excise that character from the rest of the text. Similarly, if you change someone’s name/profession/appearance/superpower, go and change it all the way through. I’m just saying …
The Frustration of the Long-Distance Editor
I’m re-reading a story I edited once already for someone and agreed to look at the next incarnation.
There’s always a level of stuff that one writer refuses to change on aesthetic and stylistic grounds, and that’s fine. I appreciate that. The things that you shouldn’t be refusing to change
Read more…
Catherynne Valente – Rules for Editing
Via the Bibliophile Stalker, this from Catherynne Valente (she of Palimpsest fame) made me laugh and nod … this is my favourite line, but I’d suggest reading the whole damned thing:
I cannot begin to understand the logic that says: BORING STUFF UP FRONT, AWESOME TO THE BACK.
The Freelance Editor – Here’s One We Prepared Earlier
In the interests of providing information that is both useful as well as facetious, I sent delightful freelance editor, Abigail Nathan, a list of questions to answer. She didn’t wanna. So I sent a couple of enforcers around (two out-of-work actors dressed up as Star Wars Storm Troopers) … to save
Read more…
In the absence of actual content
BUT! I am thinking … there will soon be posts about (a) Collaborative Connectivity and (b) How to Make Sure Your Edits Go All the Way.
Speaking of Clever People
I’ve just had one of my rare privileges: reading a fabulous manuscript that required very little of my editing and flensing talent … one that I put down only when I was so tired that I was in danger of falling asleep and impaling myself on the flensing-pen.
Meg Wildman’s Pregnant Pursuit is just, not to put too fine a point on
Read more…
On Behalf of All Writers, I Apologise
This is why editors and publishers make voodoo dolls of us and stick pins in them:
has anyone seen my shotgun?
[Phone rings. It is one of my authors, whose book is publishing shortly–long ago catalogued etc.]
Author: I’ve been thinking, the title of my book shouldn’t be [TITLE HERE]. It would be much more powerful if it were [HERE TITLE]. More
Read more…
Comment on My Editing Skills
Overheard from one area of the office not five minutes ago: “Okay, we finish writing this and then we give it to the Eviscerator over there” (accompanied by a thumb-jerked-in-my-general-direction gesture).
This makes me kind of proud … but, no, I do not get to wear a cape and top hat while giving an evil “Bwahahahahaha” laugh as I go about
Read more…
Desirable Characteristics for an Editor (Not to be confused with What Makes an Editor Sexy)
As a follow-on from Do You Want Editing With That?, I give you a list of Desirable Characteristics for an Editor[i].
An expansive knowledge of the English language – or whatever language you’re writing in.
An in-depth knowledge of grammar, its rules and regulations.
Possession of the secret of where to put commas, apostrophes, colons and semi-colons.
Someone who can spot a comma
Read more…
Would You Like Editing With That?
(kitteh snurched from Lolcats)
I spend much of my time editing, both for myself and for other people. Some days I enjoy it. Some days I think it is a punishment from the universe not only for my sins in this life, but also the sins I’ve committed in, oh
Read more…