Interview with thEditors
Editing is hard, painful work – I think most of us would agree. As readers we expect, and should expect, a flawless finish on the page. Any author will tell you that it can take a small army to achieve that. I spoke to David Taylor at ThEditors, a professional editing service (links below) about his craft to get some feedback on the most common errors and tips to avoid them.
[Q] How did thEditors get started?
A few people came together and decided to pool resources and talents rather than going it alone. It paid off.
[Q] Could you describe the services you provide, and give some examples of how they make a difference to the manuscripts you’ve reviewed?
We provide numerous services designed to (hopefully) turn good manuscripts into great ones: copy & developmental editing, proof reading, manuscript assessments and critiques and as much discussion and brainstorming about the work as the author can handle!
We tend to concentrate on the following:
Pacing – Is the plot progressing quickly enough, or is it getting bogged down and veering off on tangents?
Characterisation – Have we got proper characters that the reader can relate to and understand, or do we have cardboard cut-outs. What does each character want? What are they afraid of? Are they driving the plot?
Emotions – We strive to find the most emotional aspects of the novel and bring them out more. Our aim is to turn a lump in the throat into a tear on the cheek.
Conflict – Where is the conflict? Where is the tension? What is forcing the reader to turn that page?
I will say that we generally don’t like to take on a job just for proofreading as there are ALWAYS things which can be improved and we hate ignoring obvious flaws or not talking about what could and should be improved and just correcting grammar and typos. Obviously we do correct grammar and typos and have a dedicated team in that area, but we normally like to give the manuscript a full and detailed edit before passing it on for the final bit of polishing.
[Q] As an author as well as an editor, what is your writing process?
My writing process is simply to take off my editing cap! Writing and editing are two very different things and I actually find it very difficult to switch between them. I’m normally unable to write and edit in the same day.
[Q] What are the most common mistakes you see in the manuscripts you review?
Authors make the same mistakes AGEIN and AGEIN and AGEIN!!!
That’s why we don’t just correct them, we point them out so the author sees what they are doing and can improve. We like to think that we are not just helping with the current manuscript but also with future ones that the author will produce.
As I’ve said already, each manuscript is different, but grammar and typos aside one of the most common things to crop up is simply far too much ‘tell’ and not enough ‘show’. An author once questioned me about this, asking what exactly I meant by ‘show don’t tell’ as it’s a pretty common saying but rarely explained. I decided to use an old example to SHOW her as opposed to TELLING her.
Show: Jack stooped as he entered the cottage.
Tell: Jack was very tall.
That’s all there is to it. In version (A) you are giving the reader information by SHOWING them something happening. In version (B) you are giving them information by … well, TELLING them the situation.
Another thing along similar lines that comes up a lot is what I like to call ‘author tell’. It’s an issue with dialogue. Basically this is where an author unnecessarily tells us what a character is feeling/thinking/doing after a particular piece of dialogue has already shown it happening:
“There’s no way John could have escaped,” Jack said. Jack couldn’t understand how John could have escaped.
One of the most common things I say when going through a manuscript is, ‘let the dialogue ‘speak’ for itself’. You’d be surprised how much it comes up.
Another thing which crops up ALL THE TIME with dialogue is the use of far too many synonyms for ‘said’. I saw it summed up nicely on twitter once (#badwritingtips I think)
“Use as many synonyms for said as possible,” he ejaculated.
Mary or Marty Sue characters are all too common as well. She’s beautiful, she’s intelligent, she’s kind, she’s successful, she’s quick witted, gets the last word in any disagreement etc. He’s handsome, he’s rich, he’s brave, he can beat anybody in a fist fight etc etc. PERFECT CHARACTERS ARE BORING CHARACTERS!
Superfluous characters that don’t engage the reader – one properly fleshed out character is better than two cardboard ones.
Characters that are there solely for the MC to bounce lines off – each character should have their own goals and ambitions, each character should want something (Yes, I know, Horatio may disagree!)
[Q] If you could give any advice to first-time authors, what would it be?
Three things:
Read, read, read and then read some more.
Write, write, write and then write some more.
No rule is written in stone. It’s okay to break them as long as you are aware that you are breaking them.
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You can contact Dave and the team at ThEditors at the URL below:
If you’d like to read an excerpt of Shiri, Dave’s first novel, you can find it on your local Amazon Kindle store, or by visiting this link:
It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.
- Ernest Hemingway
