Tag: editing
The Importance Of Listening To Your Editor
I am currently co-editing an anthology of short fiction. I also supplement my paltry writers’ income with freelance editing projects. I’m not a proof reader; the edits I offer are structural, though I will pick up on any punctuation that has gone awry. Editing is something I enjoy. The idea of helping a writer to […]
Editing, a Look at Process
One of the few truisms about the craft is that everyone’s writing process is different. Regular writing schedules, writing even when (especially when?) uninspired, and training to work in less-than-optimal working conditions are fairly standard pieces of advice from career authors. I can vouch for this, as I’m currently working with two preschoolers crawling on […]
Revisions, Revisons
In a loft in a house outside a village on a wind-scoured peninsula in southwest Ireland, I sit curled in a wingback chair. A cup of tea steams on the table beside me. A milky June haze swells through the skylight. It is silent, but for the prattling rain and the desultory arguments between geese […]
Seven Fiction Writing Rules
Overwhelmed by fiction-writing advice? Me too, and I’m an editor as well as a writer. Everyone and anyone who has a blog or website seems to be keen on throwing in their penny’s worth. A lot of it is genuinely good advice. But what works for them won’t necessarily be right for you. Want proof? […]
A Day in the Life of an Editor
When you, the tired, withdrawn author, come to me, the fresh-eyed, enthusiastic editor, and say, ‘I need help’ or ‘Something’s not working, but I don’t know what’ or ‘I’m receiving countless rejections’ or ‘I keep getting 2 star reviews’ or ‘I CAN’T GO ON!’, I’m quick to offer you a virtual hug because I recognise […]
The Inside Scoop: Working with a Freelance Editor
Your draft is done. You’ve re-read it a dozen times and you can’t stand to be near it another minute. Cleaning the bathroom is starting to sound more appealing than revising your book yet another time. Well, it sounds like you’re ready to work with an editor! Hiring a freelance editor is one of the […]
Late Nights and Inky Fingers: the Daily Life of a Book Editor
Whenever someone asks that most common of “small talk” questions: “What do you do?” and I answer, “I’m a book editor,” I almost always find myself having to correct the notion that editing is a glamorous job. Fascinating—yes; Absorbing—certainly. But glamorous—rarely (unless one happens to be a fashion magazine editor in New York). Most of […]
A Book Reviewer’s Tale
In 2003, I was a freelance book critic for the Sunday Herald (Scotland, UK). The paper’s literary editor, Alan Taylor, worked for part of the week at a long table in a rather gloomy office overlooking Edinburgh‘s handsome St Andrew’s Square, and every week I would go in and spend an hour or so looking […]
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