Edit Be

Many people, especially those just starting their careers, think editing is merely making sure everything's spelled right and that the commas are used properly. But there's more to it than that, and once you understand how editing works, and how it can improve your writing, as well as your job satisfaction, you'll look forward to the process. In fact, all writers – great journalists like Seymour Hersh at The New Yorker, bestselling novelists like Haruki Murakami, well-known contemporary essayists like Joseph Epstein – need an editor. (Bloggers, it seems, are the only unedited writers left!) After all, it’s hard to look at your own work objectively, just as it’s hard to tell if those low-rise jeans look good on you or, uhm, a bit, well, you know. Sometimes you need someone to pull you aside and whisper “no, no, please, God, no.” An editor – the word, by the way, derives from the Latin e dictus, meaning “to put forward” – not only provides “an extra set of eyes,” but a set of standards that correspond to the context of the written piece. In other words, there are different generally accepted standards for press releases than there are for newspaper articles or letters home to Mom, and the best editors (and writers) bear this in mind as they work. Editors are dispassionate readers – they’re not out to get you! – whose goal is to improve a writer’s work while leaving it essentially alone, preserving the writer’s voice, style, and point of view. Editors not only look for the small stuff – grammar, spelling – but the big stuff: tone, organization, flow, completeness, and truthfulness (as opposed to “truthiness”). While proofreading and copyediting are forms of editing, those come last, after a “hard” edit. For a hard edit, editors (your boss, usually) looks at the overall document and for ways to improve its style, content, structure and flow by, among other things: •    reorganizing information  •    ensuring (or questioning) accuracy •    improving clarity •    focusing on smooth transitions •    enhancing readability (that’s why you’re sometimes asked to add subheads, bullet points,, etc.) •    suggesting certain passages be rewritten (or just going ahead and rewriting them) •    questioning source material •    deleting extraneous information •    challenging writers to take chances Finally, the best editing is actually a collaboration between writer and editor that results in a document of which both are equally proud.

Note: The first magazine in which I had a long piece published, about 6,000 words, was Chicago magazine (“The Dentist’s Vendetta: They were three grown men, living in their parents’ houses, hanging out together like high-school kids – a dentist, a contractor, and one who couldn’t seem to hold down a job. They liked cars and carousing and things that went boom in the night.”) I was pleased with the story but just could not for the life of me write a crucial transition from the first section to the next. In frustration, I handed in the manuscript and my editor eventually wrote a beautiful, concise sentence that made the segue between sections smooth as a Botoxed forehead. After the piece appeared several people actually commented on that line. At first I mumbled something about my editor having done it, but then I thought, hell, I wrote the other 5,990 words, I might as well just say thank you. After all, editors are supposed to improve my work – especially if I give them good work to work with. It was an important lesson to learn.

Comments

[Alanna]

I grew up in a family of writers who kept a dictionary on the supper table. Over the years, I turned into an eagle-eyed editor: inconsistencies and awkwardness somehow leap from the page. But when I was editing others' work professionally -- mostly journalism grads who'd been long praised for good writing -- I would see dismayed looks when writers encountered pages thick with my red marker (still my editing mode of choice). Again and again, I'd have to assure these coddled souls that they were indeed good writers, and that if what they were working on didn't have promise, the pages would in fact be blank: and unprintable. Mostly what I find today is that we forget that our job as writers is to tell stories. Thanks for this reminder.

I enjoy your work and often recommend it to clients.

[Buck]

Nice. Great insight.

Regards
Buck

[Tom McKay]

Hi Dan, I just discovered (and subscribed to) your worthwhile new blog -- thanks for the insights.

As a copywriter who also frequently edits my clients' drafts, I'd also like to thank you for reminding people that editors "are not out to get you!" I occasionally see the same reaction among my corporate clients as Alanna describes. (I'm sure you know what I mean.)

FYI, I cited this post in my Attract More Customers blog today at http://www.mainecreative.com/2007/02/does-your-writing-need-editor.html
If you have time, I'd welcome your input on my own work. Thanks!