Fix me, Oh Delightful Editor…by Ripley Proserpina

If there is one thing for which I am eternally grateful, it is my editor. I’m not sure the best analogy for an editor. Are they a priest? A magician?

They keep a thousand details at the front of their mind as they read, “There was only one deer earlier, now you have two.” And then there’s the critique… Think about it, because it’s not easy. There is more to editing than saying, “This character is really hard to sympathize with.” There is a need for both specificity and compassion, because there is an author attached to the other end of the book, and no matter how much we say, “I can handle it,” sometimes, we can’t (at least not right away).

 

Though inevitably, once we take some cleansing breaths, we straighten our shoulders, crack our knuckles, and get to it.

This is turning into a bit of a love letter to my editor, but I think she should hear it. And I think, we authors who are made a thousand times better than how we began because of our editors, we should tell them what they’ve done for us. There is something about sending a manuscript, rough though it’s been through many drafts, and having it returned so much better, that is only a little bit short of miraculous.

So thank, my dear content editor, for your humor and your ability to remember the color eyes of five romantic leads. Thank you for using song lyrics to help me understand grounding a scene, and for your eternal patience. I endeavor to deserve you.