Just for fun, here’s an edited (see how I did that!) version of a conversation I had with one of my adult daughters after she sent me a short document she wanted me to check.
Daughter: Have you finished yet?
Me: I’m fiddling with it.
Daughter: Oh no! Don’t do that. I just want you to look at it.
Me: But …
Daughter: I knew you were going to over-edit it. When I was in elementary school, I would send you a sentence like:
The cat went to the store.
You would send back something like:
The rambunctious tuxedo cat sauntered to the bookstore, where he spied a vivacious tabby jumping to a high shelf in the Christian fiction section. As her amber gaze locked with his, his beating heart told him he had finally discovered lasting love.
Clearly, not every writer likes my edits. I doubt I’d be as overbearing with a professional author I’m representing as I was with my young daughter. However, I’m aware that any edit feels like a dagger to a writer’s chest, no matter how small. If I throw too many blades, you won’t feel as good about me pitching your work to publishers as you did before I started tearing apart your writing.
And what if I’m wrong? What if the editor had preferred your work before I started tinkering with it? That’s not a chance I care to take.
And finally, if I send a manuscript that I edited heavily and we’re rejected, then not only has your writing been declined, but so has mine. If I feel this way, I have given up a layer of the necessary impartiality I need to do my job at my highest level. I feel that sting along with you enough as it is.
But what if I’m right and “our” writing is contracted and then heavily edited? Are we both to be agitated by the process? I think my level of objectivity would be less if I felt the editor was criticizing my writing too. If you end up with a brutal edit, a true arbitrator better serves you than a representative who edited your work too much.
I realize that not everyone will agree with me, but now you know more about my approach. As with almost every decision in publishing, different methods work for various people. May we all have great relationships to bring the best to readers and to God be the glory.
Give Away Your Story
OK, maybe a dumb question…do you prefer to do edits on a paper copy or an electronic one?
The cat went to the bookstore,
a Maine Coon in his prime,
on a quest for just one more
book of feline rhyme.
In the Poets’ Corner aisle
he stopped, exclaimed, “Oh, JEEZ!”
when he got a come-hither smile
from a lovely Siamese
who purred and ducked her silken head
(his heart went pitter-patter!),
but no matter what love-verse he read
to her, it couldn’t matter,
for he could never take a wife;
his owner’d edited his life.
That is hilarious, Andrew!
Oh, and I use the computer, not paper.
Very well said Tamela. Also my eighty-five thousand word novel would end up around 200,000 words with that kind of expansion.🤣
Thanks you.
Lee
LOL, Lee — I had a little too much fun with that one!
Track Changes in Word facilitates the relationship between a frugal-worded writer and a more loquacious editor. I use it when I edit for my clients and save a copy with TC in the file name. Then I select Accept All Changes and save it again that way, resulting in a clean, edited copy, and send both to the client. That way they can easily review every change I suggested and pick and choose what to keep, or just trust me and keep everything.
Track Changes is a superb program, Linda. You are wise to counsel your authors on how to secure a clean copy, as TC will haunt a document if you’re not careful.
Aside from the reality that the edits to your daughter’s cat going to the store were downright glorious, I have to agree with what Linda said above. Track/Accept changes is a great mediator in the Author – Editor relationship.
Please do, yes, PLEASE offer editorial suggestions. More often than not I’ll look at suggested edits and comments, see what the editor is driving at, and gladly accept the suggested edits.
That spirit is one of the things that makes you a pro, Damon!
I haven’t liked editing my works since the 7th grade and Mrs. Fender I’m 66 and still remember her red ink covering my writing!) However, I learned two things. First, the importance of having another set of eyes view my work objectively. Second, I didn’t always have to accept all those edits.
I had my first manuscript edited recently and decided it would be a learning experience.
I saved it so I could review those mistakes to make sure I didn’t do them again.
In the king run, my ego is less important than putting out a good story.
The editors and teachers are on your team, so that’s a good way to look at editing, Steven!
I might not like your edits, Tamela, but I will always like you.
Awww, you are so sweet, Sheri!
Such a fascinating peek behind the curtain, Cynthia! Thank you. Yes, my own teen sons are hesitant to accept help from their writing mother. However, they know that if they are desperate, I am eager to assist, ha!
I love this!
I NEED all the input I can get. Faithful are the wounds of a friend. Hopefully submitting a first manuscript to Steve. Buy the cat a Kindle. Have not heard of Word Tracker.
Hi, Tamela! I’m a novelist who lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Several years back I published my novel, Confederate Gold, to be downloaded on the internet. It has since been read by over 300,000 people worldwide. It is a story centering on the whereabouts of the lost gold of the confederacy and two priceless Greek statues that are buried with it. The text shifts from the present day to ancient Greece and the plot moves quickly. It would make for a fine movie. You can reach me anytime at (505) 5576312. I would be glad to send you a hard copy. Just read the first ten pages. I feel that you will be hooked. Thanks for reading this. George Vassallo