Good Editing Matters
My editor mentioned to me that she was very picky. I laughed out loud!
On many of the writing boards that I belong to there is always someone who will pipe up and announce that polishing his/her novel sucks all the passion out of the story. Their battle plan (spoken and/or implied) is to leave the picky stuff to their "future" editor.
I never comment on those posts because that kind of sideways planning signifies that the person isn't ready for publication. You have to get the mechanics perfect--or as perfect as you can get them, or it will never see an editor.
Oh I know what these people are thinking. "My story is so original, riveting, brilliant, yadda yadda, that the editor will want it and fix my bo-bos. Puleeeeeeeese! It doesn't work that way.
You want to get published? Here are the steps.
1. Write a great story.
2. Edit that story until it stops yanking readers out of the story.
I know excellent writers who are still not published. They do everything right, but for some reason they haven't gotten the call yet. What chance do you think a sloppy writer has?
Do the work. If your grammar sucks, take a class. If your story meanders, find some brutal crit partners and leave the cheerleaders at home.
TOUCH OF FIRE never lost its appeal to me, even when I slaved over the details at a sentence by sentence level. It's a great story and I think my love for it showed all the way through.
Grunt work matters.
On many of the writing boards that I belong to there is always someone who will pipe up and announce that polishing his/her novel sucks all the passion out of the story. Their battle plan (spoken and/or implied) is to leave the picky stuff to their "future" editor.
I never comment on those posts because that kind of sideways planning signifies that the person isn't ready for publication. You have to get the mechanics perfect--or as perfect as you can get them, or it will never see an editor.
Oh I know what these people are thinking. "My story is so original, riveting, brilliant, yadda yadda, that the editor will want it and fix my bo-bos. Puleeeeeeeese! It doesn't work that way.
You want to get published? Here are the steps.
1. Write a great story.
2. Edit that story until it stops yanking readers out of the story.
I know excellent writers who are still not published. They do everything right, but for some reason they haven't gotten the call yet. What chance do you think a sloppy writer has?
Do the work. If your grammar sucks, take a class. If your story meanders, find some brutal crit partners and leave the cheerleaders at home.
TOUCH OF FIRE never lost its appeal to me, even when I slaved over the details at a sentence by sentence level. It's a great story and I think my love for it showed all the way through.
Grunt work matters.
Comments
I would be ashamed to turn in something to you guys that isn't polished. I don't expect you to clean up my messes. That's just unfair and inconsiderate of your time.
Happy New Year to you!
Blessings,
Diane