Category: Editing Rant

EDITING RANT: Virtue Signaling

Erin Penn 1 Comment

Photo by Elevate on Unsplash

Recently read a book with a nauseating amount of virtual signaling. “This is why you MUST love the disabled character; my word, aren’t they brave!”

No, just no. I had a youth minister missing an arm; a good friend missing a leg; another missing fingers from their hand; lots of friends with chronic illnesses. I’ve known women with rough pregnancies – bedridden and/or hospitalized for months. I recently spent half a year helping a parent recover from a trip-and-fall followed by a partial hip replacement; a frustrated adult going from unable to stand without fainting proceeding through round after round of physical therapy for months until able to do nearly (not not all) of the pre-injury tasks again.

Are they brave? Absolutely yes. Do they amaze me? Yes. Do they cry, and curse, and make mistakes? Also true.

At the end of the day, they are PEOPLE and sometimes they are shitty and sometimes they are grand. But the challenge they face didn’t make them noble. The challenge didn’t define them. They are PEOPLE.

No one has to love a character just because they are disabled.

There is no need to go over and over again about “courage and strength in overcoming.” In a romance, a little is fine, as one does fall in love with all aspects of a person. But it shouldn’t be the defining aspect.

My attempt: Honestly features a disabled character. At turns, Troy is snappish, seductive, happy, frustrated, and caring. Kassandra, main Point of View character, calls him out when he is snappish and frustrated. Neither of them treat the disability as a “superpower” or a “get out of jail free card.” The problem just is; like a single mother with a three-year-old, some things just are part of life.

Two ending thoughts

  1. Let the disabled characters in stories be people. Let them experience all the aspects of life and the emotions related thereto.
  2. Have disabled characters in your writing. Everyone who lives any length of time will experience at least temporary disability – a broken arm, a respiratory illness, pregnancy. Most will experience a chronic problem with time – arthritis being the most common culprit. Let physically challenged people be seen. Everyone should be able to see themselves in fiction.

Other Cool Blogs: Why Readers DNF

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Patrick Walsh, an editing youtuber, had DNF’ed (did not finish) a book very late in the reading process and thought that had to be strange. He sent out question to his circle of friends of “Why do you DNF a book? Where were you in the reading process?” And he found three areas of read-quitting, for three different reasons at each stage.

The first and easiest he mentions right off the bat is “no questions”. I’m sure I’ve done an editing rant on this; it is one of the easiest “thank you, no thank you” rejects I do when slush reading. Sure the book is beautifully written, you can see the word flow and the story evolving, but without a question to pull you in, the story will not sell through the present electronic selling method of – open sample and read until you MUST.PURCHASE.BOOK! No question(s), no pull into story, no drive to buy … the story isn’t making it out of slush.

Watch the full video for the other two beginning issues, the three middle DNF issues, and the three-late-in-the-book DNF choices.

These are many of the same reasons books are not picked up by publishers or agents. They are, after all, reading the book too.

“I Tracked Why 100 Readers Stopped Reading — The Results Shocked Me” by Patrick Walsh (April 2026)

Editing Rant: Take It Darker

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Linus Sandvide on Unsplash

Me having an idea for a flash, nice and simple: fees, taxes, and charges being applied to travel based on age, previous travel, educational needs, and the like in response to climate control, using up resources which cannot be renewed, and those in control of the government using those excuses to actually restrict and track travel and reduce accurate communication what is happening in various places within the country. Cool, cool.

With the above thoughts spinning a web in my head, I start typing and come up with Taxing Dreams (see Flash from 8/23/2026), and Georgia takes over and starts talking about her family and everything is somewhat fuzzy on what was supposed to be edgy.

I needed to take it darker. The results is Taxing Dreams Version 2 (see Flash from 9/6/2026).

Don’t be afraid to take things to the extreme. One author I worked with, in the second book, while developmentally editing, I could see where he was going. I could feel the teeth nibbling at the edges, carefully, carefully. I told him to go for it. Have the teeth chomp and tear. Don’t hold back. He changed the scenes and the series went from Dark-ish High Fantasy to Splatter-body-horror Fantasy. (If Grim Dark Fantasy is you cup of tea, check out Drew Bailey’s Giftborn Chronicles series.)

I wish we could go back and fix the first book to match the direction it should have been going from the start. He knew he wanted to do a politically-oriented Fantasy, but he always loved horror so he added a few elements to his story about royal siblings. The second book, after I told him to go for it, changed the vibe to a horror with fantasy elements. And then, book 3, he found his voice and his stride. He stopped writing it to reader expectations and started writing the way he always should have been writing. Drew Bailey’s voice, now that it is found, is incredible and the rest of this six-book series (finished, except for the last book which is on schedule for publication before the end of the year – completely written and edited, just needs a cover and formatting).

So this editing rant is – take it darker, or lighter, or twisty, or kissy. Stop holding back. Stop writing to expectations. Go. Run naked through the woods, singing at the top of your lungs.

It is your voice. Your story.

Not what is trendy, not what is socially expected.

Write the scene where someone goes to the trouble of finding your author page on Facebook and posts “You M-F’er, how dare you. On page 174.” Create the plot twist where the person listening to the audiobook while driving screams or cries or starts laughing. Write the book that goes too far. Don’t be safe.

Be the writer you want to be.

Editing Rant: Polish, Not Paint

Erin Penn Leave a comment

Photo by Susan Wilkinson on Unsplash

The job of an editor is to polish a story, not paint their own. To take out the rough edges, to bring out the shine, to make flaws into items of interest, to shape the rock into a gem. When editing (developmental), you don’t decide the science fiction should be a romance, but you might want to point out to the author there was a romantic element buried in the story and it would work better if these two romantic tropes were added among the science fiction tropes. When editing (line), you don’t get to decide that the choice of French is wrong for the magic system and substitute in Latin. When editing (proofreading), you don’t decide that the English/UK version spellings like axe, judgement, and grey make more sense than the American spellings of ax, judgment, and gray even if the story is set in the UK, if the book is written by an American to be published in America.

It’s their gem you are polishing, not yours.

An example I run into a lot is repeated sentence starts. I have dropped this line in more than once into developmental and line editing: “You have three (or more) sentences in a row starting with “She” (or “He” or “It”), sometimes this is wanted to create a beat or an emotion. I am just checking in on this one. You don’t have to change anything, but I wanted to make sure you are aware that you are doing this repeat.”

Many times I don’t feel the need to point out the repeat sentence starts, when it is clearly in the brawling or emotional breakdown stage where someone would be repeating themselves or being very choppy. “I didn’t know. I couldn’t. How did that happen. I did it. I can’t imagine.” These are obvious about being part of the story.

But other times, well, the author may want the repeat, or she may not be aware of the situation (half the time they are not). Hence making a note; but I don’t get to say “delete this.” It isn’t my story.

I am a writer, at least I write things. For non-creators, I’m told editing is easier. But for me, I must remember at all times it is their story, not mine.

If you are an editor, put away the creative paints and only bring the polishing cloths to the editing table. You are doing a different task than writing and need different tools.

If you are a writer, remember it is your rock being made into a gemstone. You are the primary creator. Realize that a lot of the suggestions are good, even great. They will make your gemstone sparkle and shine. Sometimes it will hurt as they burnish an edge, sanding down an area. The process isn’t easy. Still, don’t let anyone paint over your voice; it is your story being told.

Polish, not paint.

Only allow polish if you are a writer being edited; only polish if you are an editor.

Does that make sense?