Tag: editors

My Editorial Staff

Despite my middle-class status and that I’m not a full-time writer, I have an editorial staff.

My senior editor, Me-Me.

Chuckie is sitting to my right on the window bench. Chuckie just woke up, and fell immediately asleep again. His job is usually to keep me on my toes. I am not on my toes right now.

Chloe is falling asleep on the job. This is probably because she is a cat, and cats are notorious for their ability to take naps anywhere. She’s on the back of the couch, right behind me. Her editing duties fall by the wayside.

I wonder if the cats are on strike, because the senior editor, Me-Me (at age 17) is sleeping on the couch.

Pumpkin has walked off the job.

I suppose paying my editorial staff in cat food isn’t the best arrangement, but they’re better than not having editors at all. And they have the advantage of purring when I pay attention to them.

Advising about Advice

My editor redeemed himself.

Not by giving in, not by praising my work, but by naming specific things I needed to work on.  In my case, it’s adding other details happening that don’t have to have to do with the story. Given how I write (from what I’ve seen yesterday), that focus and immersion on the experiences of the protagonist is like riding a train through a tunnel, and I have tunnel vision.

Successful authors don’t want editors to rubber-stamp their work, they want to be pushed to grow.  But we’re all blind to our idiosyncracies that get in the way. That’s why we have editors.

Because authors are intimate with their books, they don’t understand global comments like “it’s a bit choppy”, “drags a bit”, and “needs more cowbell”. There needs to be a more specific, actionable comment like, “You need to include detail that does not involve the plot.” or “you’ve used the word ‘vitriol’ five times in the first chapter — can you find a synonym?”

The other thing about global comments is that sometimes they’re spirit-killing. Unless you’re Dean Koontz, apparently, in this pep talk for NaNo that all editors should read (and I use “should” very sparingly):

https://nanowrimo.org/pep-talks/dean-koontz

Note to my editor: Just as I like to be praised when I finally “get it”, I’ll praise my editor, who I’m sure is reading this blog. Editor, you’re getting it. I don’t remember calling you names, and if I did, I’m sorry.

Note to authors: This is the reason you don’t write the nasty note to your editor when your ire is up. Rant about your feelings and not about your editor. Keep those sadistic fantasies to yourself. Then take a deep breath, and if your editor doesn’t redeem himself, fire him.

*******
Back to NaNo. I wrote about 2500 words yesterday, but I’ll eventually catch up. I’m actually ahead of schedule — at the last checkin, I would be done by November 17th. I won’t be putting in the detail requested above in this story, because it’s not time yet. Now is the time to lay in the skeleton.