Shop Talk: Question on Editing Style/Practices

[RogueLurker]

As no one has posted anything, might I suggest that someone send Rouge Lurker a story via PM? That way it can remain anonymous.

Get on with it people; I've been waiting four days already.

Hi All,

I can organize this ... but it will have to wait at least a few days if not a week. Between trying to get caught up/keep up at work, editing a few stories and other commitments, I won't have the time to really concentrate on this until Friday at the earliest (thank god for long weekends ... otherwise this week would really have sucked!)

If anyone else wants to take the reigns, you are more than welcome to start things off.

I'm also looking to get a ~500 word story that we can use as the "guinea pig". Any suggestions/contributions can be PM'd to me and I can either forward them to whoever wants to kick this off or set things up for sometime next week.

PS Never ... thanks for the kick in the pants. This was falling off my to-do list.

 

[Never]

I'll 'take over.' It's not going to absorb too much of my time...

Here's my plan. Anyone interested in being the editee sould PM me a 500 to 1000 word story by Friday. Rough drafts only. I'll randomly pick two then post them to this thread.

Editers: Edit per usual and show us your finished mark-up (if any) or comments (if any.) If you can post it directly to the thread, fine. If not, say it's a Word doc, link to it. If you can't so that, you'll have to PM me so I can send you my e-mail address, e-mail it to me as an attachment, and I'll find a way to host and link it.

Comment? Suggestions? Questions?

 

[kbate]

First Editing Challenge Post

This is a piece I had on my computer from about 4 years ago, never touched it, never planned to post it on Lit...

Edit away.... repost when finished

********

Every now and then I find myself going crazy from the stress and tension of living in the surburban Washington D.C. are. I drive like a maniac, yell at people, my middle finger gets a workout and my attitude basically sucks. Five years ago I found a cure for the craziness, I bought a cabin in the mountains of Pennsylvania. Whenever I find myself about to "go postal" on this area, I jump in my car and head to the hills. (does this sound like Annie from Stephen King's Misery?) I arrive at the cabin after a 5 or 6 hour drive through the hills and a feeling of peace just floods my being.

The area around my cabin is about 10 square miles of empty. A few hikers come by now and again, and hunters fill the woods in deer season, but the rest of the year it seems to be mine.

Last summer, I decided to take my "crazy medicine" and was at the cabin in mid july. The first day I went for a hike into the woods. There is a Beaver pond at the top of an old logging road and I usually swim in the pond on warm days. I arrived at the pond, stripped out of my clothes and waded in. (you don't dive in beaver ponds, too dangerous) I was floating around on my back, just enjoying the warmth of the water on my back and the sun on my face, when I heard a noise.

I looked up, and saw a man standing at my clothing. He was smiling and looking at me with a lustful gleam in his eyes. He was about six foot two, probably around a hundred eighty pounds and had long wavy brown hair, in other words basically a hunk. I ducked my body under the water, for all the good it did in the crystal clear stream water and said "hi, I didn't expect to see anyone here."

He motioned for me to come toward him and I said no and shook my head. He shrugged and bent to pick up my clothes. I yelled "Wait" and swam over to him, and climbed out of the water naked. My feet were covered in mud from the bottom, but he wasn't looking at my feet anyway.

He said "Make Love to me, and I'll give your clothes back."

I said "no" and he just grabbed me anyway and pushed me to the ground.

In a second he had me on my back and was between my legs, his weight pinning me to the ground. I struggled but couldn't get loose and he laughed at my pitiful efforts. I felt one of his hands between my legs, and then he slipped his pants down and kicked them off.

within seconds, his hard dick was pushing into my pussy, slipping easily inside. I felt myself responding and felt ashamed that I was so excited. He began thrusting and much to my shame, I started humping back at him. I assumed that if I was going to do this, It might as well be fun.

He slid his cock into me again and again, each time I met him with a forward thrust of my hips. I began to moan lightly as my arousal level increased, he grunted with each thrust, pushing deeper and harder into me. For many minutes he continued pounding his seven inch cock into me, each time retracting all the way and then plunging in fully.

I felt my orgasm about to start and I began bucking wildly under him. He thrust again, and again then I felt him hesitate and begin to jerk wildly as his orgasm overtook him. I was now wild with my own orgasm and reached forward and wrapped my arms around his neck and my legs around his ass. I humped him furiously as he shot his hot sperm into my pussy. Again and again I felt his cock contract and shoot gobs of sperm into me. I felt his cum running between my legs and into my ass. He grunted again and then collapsed on top of me. I fell back to the ground, spent and exhausted.

A minute or two passed with the two of us laying naked and spent, then he looked at me and grinned. He said "Pretty good Susie, wasn't it."

I said "Jerry, I've missed you, Glad you could make it."

We threw our clothes into a heap and began to make love again, this time with a little kissing and less frantic thrashing.

As always when we finished, I said "Jerry, Thank you for selling me the cabin."

He smiles and says "Anytime Sue."

 

[LadyCibelle]

I'll 'take over.' It's not going to absorb too much of my time...

Here's my plan. Anyone interested in being the editee sould PM me a 500 to 1000 word story by Friday. Rough drafts only. I'll randomly pick two then post them to this thread.

Editers: Edit per usual and show us your finished mark-up (if any) or comments (if any.) If you can post it directly to the thread, fine. If not, say it's a Word doc, link to it. If you can't so that, you'll have to PM me so I can send you my e-mail address, e-mail it to me as an attachment, and I'll find a way to host and link it.

Comment? Suggestions? Questions?

Count me out of your editing exercise. I have 17 stories to edit from authors here and a few less from my paying customer. So, apart from reading here and there everyday I'll refrain from getting myself into any exercise you come up with for the time being.

 

[CopyCarver]

Count me out of your editing exercise. I have 17 stories to edit from authors here and a few less from my paying customer. So, apart from reading here and there everyday I'll refrain from getting myself into any exercise you come up with for the time being.

Since you're not doing anything, want to go halves on one of the most pointless, agonizingly arcane tracts ever scribbled by an academic trying to avoid the stick end of "publish or perish" (secretly hoping he suffers the latter fate)

 

[kbate]

Count me out of your editing exercise. I have 17 stories to edit from authors here and a few less from my paying customer. So, apart from reading here and there everyday I'll refrain from getting myself into any exercise you come up with for the time being.

Come on.. it is only 1000 words... and at least half of them are only 4 letters.

 

[LadyCibelle]

Come on.. it is only 1000 words... and at least half of them are only 4 letters.

Those 1000 words? ARe you talking about your story Kate? If it is, I have to say that I very superficially looked at it and....it didn't seem to me like it was that bad.

If you're willing to take half of my load, but I still get paid for it, I'm willing to do your editing exercise without even bitching about it....deal?

 

[LadyCibelle]

Since you're not doing anything, want to go halves on one of the most pointless, agonizingly arcane tracts ever scribbled by an academic trying to avoid the stick end of "publish or perish" (secretly hoping he suffers the latter fate)

Thank you very much CC, nice of you to offer...but I'll stick to my murder-mystery-Sci-Fi editing for the time being.

 

[kbate]

Those 1000 words? ARe you talking about your story Kate? If it is, I have to say that I very superficially looked at it and....it didn't seem to me like it was that bad.

If you're willing to take half of my load, but I still get paid for it, I'm willing to do your editing exercise without even bitching about it....deal?

Um, NO.

But... I made typos and left it in first draft just for the editor... *cries*

Ok, you get a pass.

 

[CopyCarver]

Um, NO.

But... I made typos and left it in first draft just for the editor... *cries*

Ok, you get a pass.

Nice assortment of typos, tense shifts, improper caps, etc. Fess up--you retro-fitted the glitches as a test, didn't you? (Confession is allegedly good for the soul. Besides, we won't tell on you.)

 

[kbate]

Nice assortment of typos, tense shifts, improper caps, etc. Fess up--you retro-fitted the glitches as a test, didn't you? (Confession is allegedly good for the soul. Besides, we won't tell on you.)

Ha. Really, I only went through and deleted a few characters, changed a couple words and removed some punctuation before posting it. I thought I had two names for the girl also, but I must have changed it back. Honest.


**

I tried to copy an editor's version from Word - but the markup was lost in the copy/paste process and the colors did not translate into the BB code. It is not as easy to post edited copy on the board as one would think. Also, the strikethrough BB code does not appear to work on Lit's bulletin board.

The real editor challenge is finding a way to actually post as I see it on my screen when I edit.

 

[snooper]

... The real editor challenge is finding a way to actually post as I see it on my screen when I edit.

1 Take a screen-shot,
2 convert it to .jpg,
3 store it on your web site,
4 show it with IMG command.
OR
3 post it as an attachment.

 

[Cyyber_Chick]

I use track changes. I don't know why so many people hate it - I think it's great. I change words, correct errors, take out sentences, add others, and if I feel like it's a mistake the author is making throughout, then I add a comment. Or I add comments if I feel like my changes might not be self-explanatory... If the piece needs so much work that my notes and changes would take up the entire margins, then I usually send it back to the author for a rewrite with instructions like, "Go through and fix the capitalization throughout," or "Break this into smaller paragraphs, make sure you use the same tense throughout, and be consistent with the character names," etc. Then I'll look at the second draft and hopefully that one won't require so many notes in the margins.

 

[FallingToFly]

I'll 'take over.' It's not going to absorb too much of my time...

Here's my plan. Anyone interested in being the editee sould PM me a 500 to 1000 word story by Friday. Rough drafts only. I'll randomly pick two then post them to this thread.

Editers*: Edit per usual and show us your finished mark-up (if any) or comments (if any.) If you can post it directly to the thread, fine. If not, say it's a Word doc, link to it. If you can't so that, you'll have to PM me so I can send you my e-mail address, e-mail it to me as an attachment, and I'll find a way to host and link it.

Comment? Suggestions? Questions?

Works for me.

And, Never? Editors* is the correct spelling.

 

[RogueLurker]

I use track changes. I don't know why so many people hate it - I think it's great. I change words, correct errors, take out sentences, add others, and if I feel like it's a mistake the author is making throughout, then I add a comment. Or I add comments if I feel like my changes might not be self-explanatory... If the piece needs so much work that my notes and changes would take up the entire margins, then I usually send it back to the author for a rewrite with instructions like, "Go through and fix the capitalization throughout," or "Break this into smaller paragraphs, make sure you use the same tense throughout, and be consistent with the character names," etc. Then I'll look at the second draft and hopefully that one won't require so many notes in the margins.

Where I work, track changes are considered a tool of the devil. But we deal with multiple inputs, from multiple team members and multiple revisions to multiple sections. This alone is a formatting nightmare ... add track changes and it becomes a confusing never-ending nightmare. I fully admit ... I used to use track changes. But now that I've seen the underlying evilness of the tool ... I use font colours to indicate change/add/deletes.

If someone doesn't work in Word all that often ... recieving a document with track changes can be a bit intimidating ... and messy (if you are using a newer version of Word).

But this is just me an my odd little bias. It is a useful tool, when used for good not for evil ...

 

[CopyCarver]

Where I work, track changes are considered a tool of the devil.

I once had an intern who rewrote the Faust legend. She theorized that Bill Gates had Satanic assistance in building his Microsoft empire; instead of paying the devil with his soul, Bill instead agreed to inflict Track Changes upon the world.

 

[RogueLurker]

I once had an intern who rewrote the Faust legend. She theorized that Bill Gates had Satanic assistance in building his Microsoft empire; instead of paying the devil with his soul, Bill instead agreed to inflict Track Changes upon the world.

I hope she wrote it in WordPerfect ...

 

[CopyCarver]

I hope she wrote it in WordPerfect ...

WordStar, actually. She was using--I kid you not--a DOS based North Star computer that was actually older than she is.

 

[RogueLurker]

WordStar, actually. She was using--I kid you not--a DOS based North Star computer that was actually older than she is.

I loved DOS ... it just made sense to me. I fought loading Windows onto my computer for the longest time.

 

[J.Q. Hack]

Kbate's story

I liked Kbate's story. It had a nice smooth feel to it and I can definitely understand the feelings of insanity derived from crazy drivers and just urban living in general. The only question I'd have on the story as it stands is why did Sue feel ashamed? By the end of the story it was obvious she knew the man she was with and had been with him before. I could see other emotions and feelings there but shame doesn't seem like quite the right one.

J.Q.

 

[Angel Love]

Hi there everyone. I guess you could say that I am a fairly new editor to the Lit family of editors. I have been editing now steady since an accident I had since Jan, although it actually started last Sept. I have edited some 300 stories since then.

I love helping aspiring as well as seasoned writers make their work a little more pleasing to the eyes. My method of editing is this:

First of all, I do make all of the changes myself; I have never had a complaint about this so far.

Secondly, I give an in depth analysis of what I have changed in an email with the attached edited version of their story.

Thirdly, I suggest to my authors that they do a side by side comparison of the two documents, both their original and my revised version.

Fourth, I give examples in the email of sentences in which I changed things and also how it should read with a revised sentence.

There have been times when I felt that I almost did a complete rewrite of a story and have had mixed emotions about this. At first I was not sure I was doing them any favors by being so *helpful,* however, coupled with the above technique that I use and answering any questions that the author may submit to me afterwards, I have found that they have learned when their next story crosses my desk. I would say 8 out of 10 of them have learned thru my technique.

I have on occasion used the reviewer option in word and now in word perfect (on my laptop because i'm stuck in bed for the time being). Some of the authors appreciate this and if I know that they are well versed in how to adjust it after I send it with all the red marks all over it I will do it. Some, however, barely get through a writing session in word, much less know how to run any of the options. These folks don't know what to do with it once they get it back and no matter how hard I try to instruct them as to how to take out the red marks they just don't get it.

I guess it is a matter of apples and oranges. We all have our own way and in the end if we are making our authors happy and they are learning from our techniques, then hey, we are doing our jobs!

I do have one question for the gang if I may?

There is one author who came to me with a Fantasy story. It had the young damsel, for a lack of a better term, 'fucking' a mythical horse. She refers to this mythical creature as a horse throughout the story. She had already been rejected by Lit for using animals in her story. Now the problem is this. She claims that she has 10 prior chapters using these mythical creatures on Lit already. She cannot understand why she was rejected with this one by LIt.

I have read the story and refused to edit it in its present form. I suggested that perhaps she should change the horse to something less . . . um undesirable. She has resubmitted it to me today with the same word horse throughout, but at the end put in that it was a centaur.

HELP!! What do I tell this woman??? Am I wrong in turning her away once again?

Thank You and I would appreciate any and all suggestions here.

[FONT=Book Antiqua[B]]~*angel love*~ [/B] [/FONT]

 

[LadyCibelle]

I do have one question for the gang if I may?

There is one author who came to me with a Fantasy story. It had the young damsel, for a lack of a better term, 'fucking' a mythical horse. She refers to this mythical creature as a horse throughout the story. She had already been rejected by Lit for using animals in her story. Now the problem is this. She claims that she has 10 prior chapters using these mythical creatures on Lit already. She cannot understand why she was rejected with this one by LIt.

I have read the story and refused to edit it in its present form. I suggested that perhaps she should change the horse to something less . . . um undesirable. She has resubmitted it to me today with the same word horse throughout, but at the end put in that it was a centaur.

HELP!! What do I tell this woman??? Am I wrong in turning her away once again?

Thank You and I would appreciate any and all suggestions here.

[FONT=Book Antiqua[B]]~*angel love*~ [/B] [/FONT]

Those previous chapters that she say she has....do they also contain the word "horse" in it? I think that would be the first thing to make sure.

Maybe they are there and Lit's reviewers missed it. If it's the case, and yeah I might be hated for what I'm about to say, I'd recomment you report them as zoophilia is a big NO-NO here, as you know and we wouldn't want Lit to have to close down just because of an oversight of their people.

If those previous chapters don't contain "horse"...."horse-like" is fine though....then she's only stubborn and want her "horse" to be included.....then by all means, send it back to her unedited if she doesn't want to change it.

 

[Angel Love]

Thank you Lady C. I will look at her other stories now, but she did say that they contained the same kind of wording in the previous 10 and she didn't know how they had passed Lit and this one hadn't. I'll let you know

Is there somewhere I can go to figure out how to post things like you and the others do? Like stoies I have and cutsy things.


~*angel love*~

 

[LadyCibelle]

Thank you Lady C. I will look at her other stories now, but she did say that they contained the same kind of wording in the previous 10 and she didn't know how they had passed Lit and this one hadn't. I'll let you know

Is there somewhere I can go to figure out how to post things like you and the others do? Like stoies I have and cutsy things.


~*angel love*~

For an AV (the picture thingie next to ones name) you'll have to wait till you have 100 posts....103 if memory serves right...then you'll go into your user CP (first link top left) and click on "change AV", you'll be able to add, change your AV from there.

Links to your stories, quotes or whatever can be be done by clicking on User CP once again and clicking on "change signature". There you have the same kind of box as you have when you write a message and you simply put your links there.

 

[Angel Love]

Ok i'm a bit disgusted now. I may be totally off the wall on this one Lady C. I looked at a couple of her stories to find that she has been ummmm *taken* by a turtle and a dog in two of them. These are supposedly mythical creatures, but they make mention of her liking to be fucked by a dog and so on. I don't know how to proceed from here.



~*angel love*~