Tag: (business) Editing

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?

Editing Rant: F is Fact Check

Erin Penn 2 Comments

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Having friends, selectivity readers, and editors from a widely diverse background really helps writing accurate fiction. In my life, I have earned degrees in business, sociology, and computer science; my social circles looks like a Venn diagram with historic reenactors, D&D role players, and fiber art enthusiasts (especially embroidery, with a side of calligraphy and medieval illumination); I have worked as a teacher, tax preparer, and politician along with many other jobs in a lot of different industries, often more than one at a time. Plus unpaid side quests as a CPR instructor and adoring space exploration. (Oh, did I forget to mention writing, editing, book reviews, and small press publishing? I figured this website kind-of give that part away.)

This varied background means I often go “hold up, I need to do a little bit of research” when I am editing, then return with “FACT CHECK: here’s what I found.”

Having beta readers different from your personal background helps craft a more accurate picture of the world. Having specialists you can text with “Where can a person be shot with an arrow and still run for about three miles? How about if they are a werewolf and the arrowhead is silver?” or Facebook message with “So how do moon cycles ACTUALLY work? And what do you mean solar eclipses can only happen during the New Moon?”

My most recent Fact Check for an edit was CPR. Like I said, I was a CPR-First Aid instructor, something I did voluntarily for over a decade. I’ve been lucky enough never to have needed to administer CPR-Rescue Breathing in my life, but I have taught people who have used these skills in the real world.

And Fiction gets it wrong SO MUCH!!!!

Editing Rant activated.

Let’s start with the TV shows. How many times actors perform CPR on a BED!!! Look, you do compressions on a bed, the body is going to bounce up and down on the springs. Nothing is going to be compressed. Either put a body board under the body – and I say BODY because you only do CPR when there is no heartbeat. No heartbeat, no living person, … that is a dead body. – or you move the body to the floor or other flat hard surface.

Also on TV, the medical staff always “break” their elbows. The elbows are bent.

If you are doing compressions, the arms are stiff, and you have your shoulders and body above your hands and you push down with your whole body weight onto the body. You are falling on their chest basically with stiff arms. The effort on your part, after gravity does its thing with your weight compressing the ribcage, is lifting back up. Anyone who does pushups know the control fall is as exhausting as the push-up. Compressions are going to tire you out.

Now I will give the TV shows and Movies the elbow bend because you don’t want to perform CPR on a living person; no actor wants to go through that. It falls in the same category as the fact Movies and TV shows they never show the full vows during a marriage ceremony. Some things just aren’t done: perform CPR on a guest-actor or marry your co-actor on film.

Now onto books I have read or edited.

In one book, a group of three college students were electrocuted. Another person enters the room and is able to perform CPR and rescue breathing on all three people by themselves and revive all three people.

Uh, no.

Do you know how much effort it takes to do compressions, while also doing rescue breathing? Do you know how long you need to do both before it is effective? Not the typical TV, 15 seconds with three-to-five compressions and two breaths! I give TV a pass because of time limitations of the medium, but a book has all the time in the world. Three bodies needing CPR isn’t a quick fix.

If you are going to do CPR, figure you will be at it for minutes. The rule is once you start, you continued until you are relieved or you cannot physically do it anymore. Call 911 BEFORE you start. Because those “minutes” you are going to be at it is the ambulance response time for your area.

Back to the Editing Rant: Then there is the constant … and I do mean constant … “I feel a faint heartbeat, so I need to perform CPR.”

NOPE … no-no-no NO!!!

Again CPR is to restart the heart. You got a heartbeat, you are good. CPR is only done on dead people who were recently alive, to remind the body what it felt like to have a heartbeat and to be breathing.

Faint heartbeat – no CPR.

No heartbeat – then it is CPR time.

I ain’t got time to teach the world this fact one writer at a time.

So let me recommend something here. Take a CPR and First Aid course. American Red Cross, American Heart Association, OSHA training, whatever your country offers. Just take it. While the life you save likely won’t be your own, it may be a niece or nephew who fell in the pool, it may be a grandmother you are visiting, it may be a co-worker massaging the left side of their chest during a stressful meeting.

Or it could be you are able to write about CPR, rescue breathing, and basic first aid bandaging more accurately in your books.

Go! Get training.

I’m tired of editing this. It’s basic life knowledge. Or should be. Make it so.

Rant over.

E is for Editing Rant

Erin Penn

Today, I have an edit in, this time line editing / copy editing. It’s my third day going through it, and I have two more days with it. A-to-Z is hard when you are focused on other people’s words.

Line editing is the editing pass concentration on the paragraph and sentence level, and falls between developmental editing (the big picture story stuff – and my favorite type of edit to do for other people) and proofreading (the nitty gritty punctuation and verb tense stuff from English class). English class covered big picture stuff – picking up themes and logic and characters; and it also covered the nitty gritty with language structure and sentence diagrams. Line editing is a mystical land in-between no one really knows about.

I’ve covered topics like the power of paragraph breaks, fact checking (especially distances), varying sentences structure to keep things lively, integrating dialogue and narrative, etc. Also word choices. Making them powerful, make them match the genre.

Spell them right.

Okay that last one, spelling, is proofreading, but I try to catch as much as I can when I am line editing. Choosing the right word is harder than you think because of homonyms.

I need to rant on homonyms.

I’ve been editing for over a month now. I’m working on book seven and so.many.homonyms. The real evil thing about homonyms are they are actual words; spellcheck WON’T find them. Having a computer or friend read your story aloud WON’T find them because they sound the same as the word you should have used. The only way to catch these monsters is with trained human eyes and still some of these buggers are going to slip through. It’s why I start marking them during the line-editing even though it is a proofreading thing. Maybe between the two passes we can catch these nightmares in our net.

The standards: too/to/two and they’re/their/there and it’s/its.

The all-time winner (found in half of the books I edit)!
I reigned in my anger. (I reined in my anger.)
Reign – is to rule / Rein – Guild-line type things on horse which control movement

 Old standbys:
I waited with baited breath for the authors to learn. (I waited with bated breath for the authors to learn.)
Baited – using small pieces of food to catch bigger things / Bated – short of abated, meaning stopped or reduced

I bare the burden of too many words. (I bear the burden of too many words.)
Bare – uncovered / bear – to carry

I gave the writer a peace of my mind. (I gave the writer a piece of my mind.)
Peace – a quiet time or situation / Piece – a part

The son rose and set before the edit was done today. (The sun rose and set before the edit was done today.)
Son – male offspring / Sun – the big burning day-moon

What a fowl situation. (What a foul situation.)
Fowl – animal in the bird family / foul – offensive to the senses

 New and interesting ones:
Over the coarse of time, I learned my lesson. (Over the course of time, I learned my lesson.)
Coarse – rough surface / Course – a path

Pity the retch editing other people’s books. (Pity the wretch editing other people’s books.)
Retch – to gag / Wretch – be pathetic

Words closely related to homonym issues to watch out for:
Lighting / lightning / lightening (glows / storm / color changes)

Than / then (comparison of quality / time order)

 

I could go on all day, but let me end with one that blue (blew) my mind a few years ago. The author used each of these words twice in the manuscript. Once for each with the word spelled right, and once each with the homonym. Yes I fond them that time … but, no, I don’t always find – I can’t find – everything. Homonyms are hard to find, am I write (right)?

Magical Words: Revisions Revisited

Erin Penn

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Time to break out the red pen again. An edit is in the door and needs some work.

One of the things I will say, many times is – “this is just a suggestion.” or “It needs fixing, here is an example so you can see how I think it is wrong, but you are the author.”

David B. Coe paraphrased his editor in the Magical Words post from November 29, 2010, “Revisiting Revisions” with:

“You don’t have to use my wording,” he said with maddening equanimity, when I complained about some change he had made to a previous manuscript. “You’re the writer; I’m sure you can come up with something better.  I changed it because the original wording didn’t work.  It wasn’t clear, or it didn’t work with the rest of the scene.  I was just trying to draw your attention to it.”

And that is the horrific thing editors do. They point out what is wrong. Maddening cruel and loving essential, every red mark.

And it isn’t always “wrong – wrong”. It could be “not as good as you are capable of”. Sometimes I think that is the worse, because wrong is an easy fix – “make better” oh boy, that is going to take some effort.

This particular Magical Words is mostly a reminder for ME on how to be the best editor possible. Sometimes ruts happen. Tired happens. And people need to be reminded of best practices. This post by Dr. Coe is full of them.

Again, the URL is: https://www.magicalwords.net/david-b-coe/revisions-revisited/