I'm A Willing Editor But You May Not Like Me

[MicKay]

Former Glory

I acknowledge receipt of your story.

I provide email updates every few days as to my progress so the writer knows if the story is in line or how far I have edited.

I provide preliminary feedback as to my general impression.

And I ask that writers confirm receipt when I return the edited story.

I'm just a demanding ass. Maybe to be avoided. Your choice.

So you may be wondering why you might not like me. This is because I am an unconventional editor. I don't accept stories for editing and go silent for weeks, as other writers have experienced. No, there are no hidden charges. I adore Lit and am doing my best to return this website to its former glory. This may be a failed effort, but not due to my lack of effort.

You used the term "former glory" in the first post. I just wanted an explanation or possible example of what was Lit's former glory. Thanks!

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Former Glory

You used the term "former glory" in the first post. I just wanted an explanation or possible example of what was Lit's former glory. Thanks!

Fair enough. I first found Lit years ago when the EF was like a rock... imagine waves pounding upon it. More editors than writers, when those who edited also had time to write. A small community where we all knew the others, for the most part. Sure, had the usual catfights, but these were resolved.

Now, suddenly, us editors are inundated with edits from persons across the globe. Not sure of others but I like to write and yet find my time exhausted by edits. And writers do not appreciate that many editors are writers, placing their stories above ours.

I will be taking a break to write, and when I do, I will not edit.

Because I write too.

 

[MicKay]

Fair enough. I first found Lit years ago when the EF was like a rock... imagine waves pounding upon it. More editors than writers, when those who edited also had time to write. A small community where we all knew the others, for the most part. Sure, had the usual catfights, but these were resolved.

Now, suddenly, us editors are inundated with edits from persons across the globe. Not sure of others but I like to write and yet find my time exhausted by edits. And writers do not appreciate that many editors are writers, placing their stories above ours.

I will be taking a break to write, and when I do, I will not edit.

Because I write too.

Thanks for the explanation. I had wondered if the website had become inundated with new writers and maybe our quality of writing (mine included) were ruining something that was once great.

For the record, I appreciate the EF. I've been haunting the various threads since joining and find the posts to be more helpful than those at AH. That place is entertaining but not always helpful.

Anyway, I thank you for taking the time to explain the post to me. And I'm sorry that the world is full of inconsiderate people like some writers apparently are.

MC

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Thanks for the explanation. I had wondered if the website had become inundated with new writers and maybe our quality of writing (mine included) were ruining something that was once great.

For the record, I appreciate the EF. I've been haunting the various threads since joining and find the posts to be more helpful than those at AH. That place is entertaining but not always helpful.

Anyway, I thank you for taking the time to explain the post to me. And I'm sorry that the world is full of inconsiderate people like some writers apparently are.

MC

All is well.

 

[lustatopia]

AsylumSeeker,

A good editor must be a powerful shaman. With big medicine. You sound like you are and have what it takes.

 

[sr71plt]

A good editor must be a powerful shaman.

Sorry, but I had to barf at this. A good editor does his/her work so quietly and unobtrusively that when the story is finished in review you wouldn't even know that she/he had been there.

 

[The_Fool]

Sorry, but I had to barf at this. A good editor does his/her work so quietly and unobtrusively that when the story is finished in review you wouldn't even know that she/he had been there.

I concur.

If you need a shaman for an editor, you shouldn't be writing.

 

[lustatopia]

Wow. Strong medicine here. ;-)

I suppose if you come from the minimalist (journalism?) school of editing you quietly fix the typos, snip da fat and conform the text to the style book...done.

Another school of "editing" exists, at least in the big league, where the editor is a bit more supportive of the authors she/he is shepherding, not only towards a successful career, but to artistic fulfillment. Often the editor/author relationship works on many different and intimate levels - a fair amount of feedback and analysis can occur not only of the text, but of the assumptions underlying the subtext. Naturally, a high degree of trust must exist for such a relationship to work. Each relationship is unique.

Furthermore, such an editor is often the author's primary interface with the publishing house, and as such is the author's advocate in matters of deadlines, advances, touring schedules and all manners of minutiae discretionary under contract. Authors love editors who can work magic with these constant pressures.

The best editors are not only the intellectual peers of their authors, but also considerably more worldly in matters that an author has little time to attend. Such an editor is there not to influence the creative process in a directly causal fashion, but to manage the situational, even existential parameters, to ensure that his or her author's authentic voice and genius is given the best opportunity possible to be heard and understood for what it is.

A best-selling American author once told me at a Manhattan cocktail reception. "My editor is a powerful shaman, man!" That image of the editor as a practitioner of healing, divination and controller of spirits struck with me as rather apt.

 

[sr71plt]

You're making this up as you go along, aren't you? (I am engaged in big time mainstream editing/publishing and you've described a fantasy.)

In fact I'm working on a big house mainstream edit at this moment, and where I'd like to guide the author is to the chopping block.

By the way if this cocktail party discussion you mentioned with best-selling author ever occurred, dollars to donuts he/she was talking about their acqusitions editor, not their copyeditor. Editors come in different functions in the big leagues--but then, I'm sure you knew that.

 

[lustatopia]

"...dollars to donuts he/she was talking about their acqusitions editor, not their copyeditor...."

* * *

Want to redefine the terms of your argument? We were talking about "THE Editor", weren't we? Not the interns or "engaged" contractors online somewhere in Georgia.

So you really meant the humble copy-editor?...as in, say, the post-grad lit chick who has a whole cubicle all to herself in the back room, whom the celebrity author never meets, much less even knows her name?

What ever makes you happy.

I do find your argumentative style unaccountably aggressive, why do you feel so threatened? Is there something you would like to share with us? I just came here to wank-off, but, hey, maybe I can help?

You've barfed, change the terms of the argument, suggested I'm a liar and used the logical fallacy of authority AND created a strawman all in under 100 words. Nice form! But not very friendly, or entirely rational.

 

[sr71plt]

I don't find your postings on the editorial function threatening. I find them pie-in-the-sky amusing.

Again, you're making this up as you go along, aren't you?

And point of order, you're the one who flipped this up to what happens in the "big leagues." These ain't the big leagues here.

 

[bronzeage]

Wow. Strong medicine here. ;-)

I suppose if you come from the minimalist (journalism?) school of editing you quietly fix the typos, snip da fat and conform the text to the style book...done.

Another school of "editing" exists, at least in the big league, where the editor is a bit more supportive of the authors she/he is shepherding, not only towards a successful career, but to artistic fulfillment. Often the editor/author relationship works on many different and intimate levels - a fair amount of feedback and analysis can occur not only of the text, but of the assumptions underlying the subtext. Naturally, a high degree of trust must exist for such a relationship to work. Each relationship is unique.

Furthermore, such an editor is often the author's primary interface with the publishing house, and as such is the author's advocate in matters of deadlines, advances, touring schedules and all manners of minutiae discretionary under contract. Authors love editors who can work magic with these constant pressures.

The best editors are not only the intellectual peers of their authors, but also considerably more worldly in matters that an author has little time to attend. Such an editor is there not to influence the creative process in a directly causal fashion, but to manage the situational, even existential parameters, to ensure that his or her author's authentic voice and genius is given the best opportunity possible to be heard and understood for what it is.

A best-selling American author once told me at a Manhattan cocktail reception. "My editor is a powerful shaman, man!" That image of the editor as a practitioner of healing, divination and controller of spirits struck with me as rather apt.

I once turned a writer into a newt for ending a sentence with a preposition.

He had been warned.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

AsylumSeeker,

A good editor must be a powerful shaman. With big medicine. You sound like you are and have what it takes.

I do what I do to help those struggling to live a dream. My purpose in life, I think, is to help those realize their dreams. Sometimes we are chosen to be agents of a greater power rather than to be the recipient of it.

I have been blessed my entire life, no complaints, willing to give back however I can.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I once turned a writer into a newt for ending a sentence with a preposition.

He had been warned.

Do newts have sex? Are they equipped for pleasure? <Sigh> Maybe being a newt might not be so bad.

 

[snoopercharmbrights]

Do newts have sex? ...

To misquote: "It's sex, Jim, but not as we know it."

 

[AsylumSeeker]

To misquote: "It's sex, Jim, but not as we know it."

Okay, thinking your referring to Scarlett. Good one.

I was/am jujst trying to express my...

Oh good grief, I've forgotten now.

 

[bronzeage]

Do newts have sex? Are they equipped for pleasure? <Sigh> Maybe being a newt might not be so bad.

Newt sex is mostly an amphibian form of bukkake, but a little more tender and caring than the way humans do it.

 

[sxyoldguy]

Do newts have sex? Are they equipped for pleasure? <Sigh> Maybe being a newt might not be so bad.

Newts actually do mate and hatch eggs, at least that's what reference.com says, and we all know that anything on the internet must be correct.

I think however, that bronzeage's newt is of the dull and uninteresting variety. Dull and uninteresting people must mate or we wouldn't have any.

Entirely too much time on my hands. Back to my latest story!

 

[driphoney]

To misquote: "It's sex, Jim, but not as we know it."

Okay, thinking your referring to Scarlett. Good one.

I was/am jujst trying to express my...

Oh good grief, I've forgotten now.

Beam me up, Scotty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE


I know, I know. It's corny, but I couldn't resist.

 

[Esperanza_Hidalgo]

Beam me up, Scotty!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCARADb9asE


I know, I know. It's corny, but I couldn't resist.

We come in peace *smile*

I'm dancin. We're Star Trekkin'

 

[AsylumSeeker]

Entirely too much time on my hands. Back to my latest story!

OH NO!

 

[AsylumSeeker]

We come in peace *smile*

To quote a Dolph Lundgren alien action movie, it ends with what you just wrote, with Dolph's response being, "You go in pieces!"

 

[lustatopia]

I once turned a writer into a newt for ending a sentence with a preposition.

He had been warned.

Exactly, the sort of thing I was on about. The bugger deserved it too.

 

[AsylumSeeker]

I looked through the thread for the term "former glory" and saw none. Perhaps if you quoted?

"Former glory" is a term I use to describe this forum at a time when there was great passion, wonderful interaction, and fantastic people here. Some of them are no longer here, or peek in from time to time. There was a time when I first showed up when the EF was so different, so much better, with innnocence.

And so here we are. Different now, some six years later. But I have also forged friendships since then that I also treasure.

 

[UltimateSwitch]

Hello, quiet thread, oh how i have missed you all....