Thursday, June 30, 2011
Editing Secrets?
I've been reading some self-published ebooks and have found that there is a sometimes a definite difference between them and the nationally published books. Don't get me wrong, most of the ones I have read have really compelling stories and characters, but they lack something in the editing department. I'm not talking about grammar errors, that doesn't bother me anymore. I'm talking about things like pacing, tension, relevance, and satisfying endings. Now, I have the same problems in my stories as well and it leaves me wondering, what kind of magic do editors have to be able to take an author's writing and change it into what we see as the final product? How do they shape and mold a story? I'm really hoping for a magic wand type of answer here. I mean, I can point out these problems to other writers, but as a writer myself, how do I take those problems and fix them? Especially when I'm sometimes looking at my writing and not want to cut, or sometimes, just not know a better way. Do editors actually give you a better way? Or do you have to research it yourself? I guess I'm asking those of you that have worked with editors. What secrets did you learn from your editors?
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Cutting out all unnecessary dialogue, descriptions, or plot that isn't crucial to the story or the characters is key. It can be difficult to erase work you've spent hours upon hours writing and editing, but if it's clunky, it must go.
ReplyDeleteEmily, that's a big one I'm seeing in the self-published books. A lot of irrelevant information. It really slows down the stories. Good advice!
ReplyDeleteI frankly think an editor is the magic wand because they are 1) an outside opinion, someone who doesn't live and breath this story AND 2) is invested in the quality of the finished product.
ReplyDeleteBeta readers and writing groups can fill the first spot, but not the second. You need somebody who does both who knows exactly what needs to be cut to make it GOOD, not just to make it DIFFERENT.
It isn't magic. They simply reject the stories that don't have dramatic endings or good pacing or intriguing characters or compelling openings. The editor didn't do that. The rejection slip did it. Who is going to reject a self-pulbished work? Santa. That's why its a tad bit harder to get published by a publisher. They're just a little bit pickier.
ReplyDeleteGina, I'm coming to believe that more and more! It kind of begs the question of would you hire an editor if you were to self-publish or stay away from self-publishing all together? What are your thoughts?
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, hahaha, that is true too, I didn't think of it that way. Of course the books I've been reading were, in my opinion, really close to something a national publisher would put out. They just lacked that final polish.
ReplyDeleteAnd one more thought: there was a day in the modern editing world, up until the 70s, when an author was picked up by and publisher and then spent the rest of their career with that publishing house. The skills YOU WISH YOU HAD were taught to you by an experienced editor who usually had five to ten authors they worked with. Closley. Sometimes daily. They taught the author about voice. About cliches. About pacing. Point of View. Story arc. Character arcs. Foreshadowing. Dialogue. Interior Dialogue. Climax. Opening, middles and endings of stories. Then came the era of publishing houses buying authors from other publishing houses. They figured they could buy an already-seasoned author from another house. And they did. And over night it because suddenly apparent to all the publishing houses that they could spend years investing in an author only to lose them. The mentor of authors ceased. IMMEDIATELY. And publishing houses turned into talen agencies, searching for talent that they could publish with just a bit of polishing. Editors became spell checkers and polishers, instead of mentors. There was no such things as a deep edit, followed by training in all the skills required for good novel writing. That's why you see all sorts of NOT-SO-GREAT technique in novels today. The publishing house decided that the story or the concept of the novel was strong enough and the picked up the novel. That never would have happaned in 1965. It happens every week today. YOU HAVE TO LEARN the art of literally thousands of techniques that will make your story-telling better. And you have to do in on your own. From masters.
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