Don't Dread the Ed

Spoiler alert: Rules of grammar and punctuation were broken in the creation of this blog post. No editor. Mistakes all mine.

When it comes time, during the course of writing a manuscript, for a real editor to step in and appraise my work, my writer’s ego always springs up. Ambivalence floods in. What? This is brilliant! The writing is perfect. I’m not going to change a thing! Only to feel quite differently after seeing the flood of red strike-throughs in ‘Track Changes,’ with suggested changes in a rude shade of blue.

But face it. Even if we use Browne and King’s classic ‘Self-Editing for Fiction Writers,’ and even if revision is our favorite part of the writing process (it is for me), eventually the work requires a detached, egoless eye. The coaching, editing, and critiquing of one’s work by professionals are imperative if an author wishes to excel at his or her craft. David Mamet, the playwright, tells us his editor will sometimes remove his favorite scenes. And it makes the work a lot better. Okay, fine. If Mamet does it, I’ll do it. But I don’t have to like the process.

Imagine, then, my chagrin when one day my pal, author Nikki Root, offered to edit my next blog post. Nikki is currently in transition from her day job to the gut-churning carnival ride of full-time, freelance editing. I have no doubt she will succeed handsomely. But that was not my first thought. My first thought was, “Wow! What a great offer!” (Especially since she offered to do it gratis.) My second thought was, “What if I don’t agree with her suggestions?” Enter writer’s ego.

But Nikki’s my friend, her wickedly funny sci-fi makes me laugh, and we clown around together on the ethernet about writing and other matters. Plus, I trust her judgement. Curiosity won out over writer’s ego. Of course you can edit my blog post, I said, and hit send. Like, immediately.

Some thirty minutes later – yes, it was that quick - I receive a Google Docs attachment in return. I take a peek through slitted eyelids. Yup. Lots of tell-tale red strike-throughs. Changes in blue. I didn’t achieve writerly perfection. Not even close. Open doc to view. Hmmm. Not too bad. A word or two struck here and there, sometimes changed, sometimes just eliminated; a phrase suggested. Periods. Commas. Always commas. The comma dust-up is a perpetual battle. And the corrections begin.

Then something happens. Unexpected. Never before experienced. Amidst the red ink, the strike-throughs, the inserts, from one blue change to the next, I take a look - a good, hard look - at my work. And I see it with that jaundiced editor’s eye. There’s junk in here, I say to myself. Get rid of it. Stuff that muddles, language that disguises my intent. Away with it! Where is that delete button? Here - two sentences in the next paragraph that will fit perfectly up here. Eliminate this paragraph, rewrite the next, and now I can work in the other ideas I wanted to cover but didn’t because of length, junk words, and so on, until my admittedly fair-to-mediocre blog post became a much better blog post. Good, even. Maybe damn good. And I owe it to my pal who did a nice, yet simple, thing for her writer friend.

And right then, perhaps that very day or perhaps the next day, my great IT helpmate, Lisa, wrote of her own work that – yes, she has an editor review all of her blog posts! And the heavens opened and the choir sang the praises of the ed. And now I want someone to edit all my blog posts. And if you are curious about Nikki and her writing, and her other work – you won’t be disappointed - you can find her here: nikkiroot.substack.com

Nikki, hurry up with the rate card.