Elizabeth Reuter's Blog - Posts Tagged "editing"
Editing.
After getting published by JournalStone, I offered them my services as an editor, and currently do some work for them in that capacity.
I love doing it. No "buts." Every book, however wonderful, has flaws. Looking back at The Demon of Renaissance Drive, as proud of it as I am, I see loads of mistakes now. Every writer can look back and old work and, assuming they've worked to improve themselves, see ways to make a book better. But you can't spent forever crafting one work; you have to get it out, and get it out in the best shape it's capable of becoming. Re: editing.
Writers will take this personally. Not "can" or "may." Writing is personal, and when someone is looking at a sentence you're immensely proud of and saying, "This doesn't work with the story, slows down the action, and bores me," that hurts.
And yet the editing is a labor of love too. Really good books, books I get into as a reader and am ripping through pages to see the ending of, are more fun to improve. I'm not just making forgettable crap readable; I'm helping something entertaining entertain people it wouldn't have before. Erasing the author's repeated use of the word "fabulous!" will keep nit-picky types from throwing the book aside. Filling plot holes will keep confused readers from putting the book down and never picking it up again because "It didn't make any sense." Making the author re-write the first page will suck in readers just glancing through dozens of similar titles.
Thinking of how I cringed at light criticism at first, the only thing I regret now as an author is not soliciting more, harsher critiques. I hope I can be something the authors I work with need. I know how important their writing is to them.
-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive
I love doing it. No "buts." Every book, however wonderful, has flaws. Looking back at The Demon of Renaissance Drive, as proud of it as I am, I see loads of mistakes now. Every writer can look back and old work and, assuming they've worked to improve themselves, see ways to make a book better. But you can't spent forever crafting one work; you have to get it out, and get it out in the best shape it's capable of becoming. Re: editing.
Writers will take this personally. Not "can" or "may." Writing is personal, and when someone is looking at a sentence you're immensely proud of and saying, "This doesn't work with the story, slows down the action, and bores me," that hurts.
And yet the editing is a labor of love too. Really good books, books I get into as a reader and am ripping through pages to see the ending of, are more fun to improve. I'm not just making forgettable crap readable; I'm helping something entertaining entertain people it wouldn't have before. Erasing the author's repeated use of the word "fabulous!" will keep nit-picky types from throwing the book aside. Filling plot holes will keep confused readers from putting the book down and never picking it up again because "It didn't make any sense." Making the author re-write the first page will suck in readers just glancing through dozens of similar titles.
Thinking of how I cringed at light criticism at first, the only thing I regret now as an author is not soliciting more, harsher critiques. I hope I can be something the authors I work with need. I know how important their writing is to them.
-Elizabeth Reuter
Author, The Demon of Renaissance Drive
Elizabeth Reuter's Blog
As a huge fan of dark fantasy, horror, and the like, that's most of what I'll write about here. Most horror/fantasy/sci-fi is badly made, and there's this silly idea that that means the genres themsel
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