Disheartened

[lazyhobo]

In a sense, editing is necessarily being critical. It does take a certain effort and maybe skill to do it in a way that isn't hurtful. Humor is good, if you can muster it. If that fails, simply being clinical is a good fall-back position.

Sometimes when I'm by myself reading what someone else has written, I'll sit here swearing out loud. But that's never what I write on the paper, even if it's been submitted for a grade.

Different people respond to different methods;

If we take a PowerPoint presentation, you could display all the information in boring text, and people like myself would read it and understand, but for others, it could be confusing. You could add pictures for those ones, allowing them to understand, which may work against those that preferred the simple text approach.

Similarly, A lot of people respond well to feedback, comments and even jokes to mask something. But there will be others that require straight and blunt, to the point criticism. (Telling a volunteer author to stop writing is going too far though) But, when it comes to "How to break it to the author" its a slippery slope, because unless you know which way the author will respond to what method you employ in helping, you're shooting in the dark.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Different people respond to different methods;

If we take a PowerPoint presentation, you could display all the information in boring text, and people like myself would read it and understand, but for others, it could be confusing. You could add pictures for those ones, allowing them to understand, which may work against those that preferred the simple text approach.

Similarly, A lot of people respond well to feedback, comments and even jokes to mask something. But there will be others that require straight and blunt, to the point criticism. (Telling a volunteer author to stop writing is going too far though) But, when it comes to "How to break it to the author" its a slippery slope, because unless you know which way the author will respond to what method you employ in helping, you're shooting in the dark.

A post tells a lot about their editorial skills.

Just saying.

 

[lazyhobo]

A post tells a lot about their editorial skills.

Just saying.

Go on then, you've piqued my interest, what does my post say about my Editorial skills?

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Go on then, you've piqued my interest, wFirst of alllhat does my post say about my Editorial skills?

First of all, Editorial should not be capitalized. Shall I really pick a part your post? And to what end? To say that I'm a better editor than you, or that you are me?

I give up.

 

[palisa]

So you do an inferior job as a VE than you would if you were being paid?

Isn't that selling your authors short?

Well, I'll cop to it. I do an inferior job as a VE fairly frequently. I'm not going to swamp a new writer (or an unskilled writer with a good voice) with nit-picks, and I'm not going to recast large portions of a story myself. There are usually a few fundamental, recurring problems in stories by such authors, and the first job is to point those out and get the writer to recognize and correct them. Punctuation and capitalization around quotes is a common problem ("I am tired." She said.") as is run-on sentences. But every writer seems to struggle with his own set of blind spots. Concentrate on getting those fixed and the next stories will be better; then it's time to focus on the rough spots in sentence construction, which are usually more idiosyncratic and non-recurring.

But I don't think it helps to swamp a writer with a red pencil. There's often too much to absorb all at once; if you try to explain and fix everything at once, you get frustrated when the same errors recur the next time around and the relationship begins to get frazzled.

 

[lazyhobo]

A post tells a lot about their editorial skills.

Just saying.

First of all, Editorial should not be capitalized. Shall I really pick a part your post? And to what end? To say that I'm a better editor than you, or that you are me?

I give up.

Regardless of what words should and should not be capitalized, that doesn't really say much about me as an Editor, it merely means, 1) I've made a mistake, or 2) at the time I felt the need to put a capital. If I'm wrong, then so be it, nobody is perfect.

Now, to what end? you've just threw out a comment, insinuating that I'm a bad editor, if not just a worse editor than yourself, but now that I ask you to clarify, its "What point is there?"

You've already insinuated that my skill is lacking, so go on, please continue.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

No. Where did I say anything about doing an inferior job? It's not even an option; I'm a perfectionist when it comes to editing, I'll correct anything I see. ...

That is what appears to be implied where you said:

... But I'm also going to be tougher on my [professional] authors than I would in an amateur setting ...

 

[Bramblethorn]

That is what appears to be implied where you said:

Nope. I think you're assuming that "tougher on authors" = "tougher on errors"; that would be a bad assumption.

 

[DeYaKen]

That is the reason I was nevous

I have been editor for many years but I am new to Lit. In the past few days I have received several pieces to edit. One gentleman I reviewed sent me a message of thanks for taking the time and hard work. I replied that I signed up as a volunteer editor to help. After a long conversation it came out that there are several editors on here that are not as helpful but damaging.
he was told he was an idiot to even think he could write something people would want to read.
That is appalling. As an editor a person who chooses to share a piece of themselves to be picked apart, reshaped and scrutinized is hard enough. Cutting people down is not okay. I hope the editor reads this...
If all you want to do is judge people on how worthy you think their work is put down the red pen and become a critic.

Ticked off,
Aylah

Aylah you have high lighted the very reason that I and probably many others had worries about finding an editor.

My first story "Secrets and lies" was full of errors. I've been back through it and found many myself. I was urged to find an editor and I was worried that I might end up with someone like the English teacher that put me off writing for more than forty years. I was very lucky I found Juicystarchild and we have become online friends. She has even encouraged me to publish a story that I had sat on for months thinking it was not worthy of an audience. (it gave me my best rating)

Working with Juicy is like having a good mentor she points out errors, and suggests that I might like to re-write parts. I think we treat each other as equals and I can always see that the story is better when we have finished. It is a great pity that her real life prevents her from taking on any more.