As many of
you may know, I edit for a couple of publishers as well as on contract and for
friends. I’m pretty tough, and I do both content and line editing. So why do I
need an editor? (And why does every other writer?)
1. I’m too close to the material. I
know what it’s supposed to say, and
therefore I read it that way. I learned this lesson the hard way with our first
book, 31 Months in Japan: The Building of a Theme Park. After three
complete rewrites plus a complete edit by the publisher, I thought we’d gotten
all the bugs out. My then-boss read the book and mentioned she’d found an
error. (She’s one of the best proofreaders I know.) I asked what it was, and
sure enough, it was right there. A letter had been left out of a word, and all
of us missed it.
2. Even with an editor, mistakes
creep in. (I attribute the errors to the Menehune,
by the way.) However, fewer mistakes appear when a professional goes through
the manuscript after I’ve taken a few whacks at it.
3. We run all our work through our
critique group.They catch the small errors and make suggestions for
improvement. However, in doing the corrections for the critiques, that pesky
delete button sometimes gets carried away, and words that should have been left
in get deleted. Or the opposite can happen. Words that should have been deleted
just won’t leave.
4. I tend to overuse certain words, like
three times in the same paragraph when there are perfectly good synonyms. Our
critique group usually catches those, but not always. My editor does, however.
5. It’s easy to leave out quotation
marks and to either add or omit other punctuation. When I do a professional
edit, the last pass is usually to check to make sure that all sentences end
with punctuation and that all quotes are in pairs. I don’t always see these in
my own work because I’m usually more concerned about content.
6. When you develop a good
relationship with an editor who enjoys your writing and who understands your
style of storytelling, the mutual trust level increases. Whenever a particular
editor makes a comment, I pay attention. She understands me well enough to know
when I haven’t made an important point clear enough, and she isn’t afraid to
point out where I haven’t answered a question or completed a story arc adequately.
She also makes notes of the things she likes in the story. That affirmation
really helps me know when I’m on the right track.
7. I always know the backstory for my
books, but I’m afraid of interjecting ‘reader feeder.’ So I sometimes need to
be told that the reader may need the additional information. When editing
Larry’s book, Lakeview Park, I had to remind him several times about
including enough detail to explain a character’s motivation.
8. Even editors can make grammar
errors when they put on their writing hats. I depend on my editor to point out
when I’ve done that. Split infinitives and confusing pronoun references are
probably the biggest issues. I know better, but sometimes in the rewriting,
those kinds of things can occur.
9. A good editor can be your best
asset in producing a great book, On the other hand, a poor edit can make the
difference between an enjoyable story and one that is difficult to read, and
therefore not a pleasure.
That’s why I always tell those authors with whom I’m working that the manuscript ultimately belongs to them, not to me. I merely make suggestions, and they are free to accept or reject them.
If you do find an editor you like, you are truly blessed. And if you haven’t yet, keep looking until you find one.
Oh, how right you are! I say gremlins are there to add and subtract things even after they've been edited. Drives me NUTS!
ReplyDeleteMarilyn
GRIN!
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