Editing
My real life writer’s group decided that they wished to publish a book of their short stories. It took us nearly 18 months to get it moving but we’ve finally put it together and printed the first draft in book size format.
I, being the computer expert, am responsible for the production of the document that is printed. That involved taking two to five files from each of the writers (fifteen in all) and storing them into one file. That one file has to be in one font (actually a few - for author name, for title and for text). Other things need to be the same, for example the use of one or two spaces after a full stop, question mark or explanation mark, the word okay is used instead of ‘ok’, times are all written in the same manner and certain spelling rules are used (words like travelled has two ‘l’s, customize is with a z not an s, etc.)
We have an editor within our group. She’s a god-send and has spent numerous hours editing each story at least twice before I started the process of pulling all the stories into one file.
Now we have had the first draft printed it looks so different. Reading a story in A5 size, rather than A4 or on the screen, highlights a whole stack of other things that need correcting. Plus the formatting I chose (font and margins in particular) didn’t look as good on A5 paper as it did on A4 paper. So I now have the book back, together with a number of changes to make. A lot of changes.
In a book that is close to 300 pages only a handful of pages have no red marks on them. I was pleased to notice that my four stories have less marks than some others did, yet I still felt a touch of unreasonable emotion as this lady went though the changes with me.
I know the feelings and thoughts were unreasonable, as her changes are correct, necessary or made to produce consistency. I know that she is an editor and not emotionally attached to any particular story and thus is the best person to make these changes. I know she has talked to each of the writers prior to me making the changes and each writer has agreed and approved. Yet I still felt cross, hurt, upset that she made changes. And most of the book is not my writings.
Heaven help me when I get to a real editor with my own book, my own words and they suggest changes and corrections, strongly suggesting with no sitting down over a cuppa explaining.
At least I'm forwarned and can expect the emotions and deal with them.
Tell you what, producing this collection has been a huge learning experience and if for nothing else is a worthwhile endeavour.
I, being the computer expert, am responsible for the production of the document that is printed. That involved taking two to five files from each of the writers (fifteen in all) and storing them into one file. That one file has to be in one font (actually a few - for author name, for title and for text). Other things need to be the same, for example the use of one or two spaces after a full stop, question mark or explanation mark, the word okay is used instead of ‘ok’, times are all written in the same manner and certain spelling rules are used (words like travelled has two ‘l’s, customize is with a z not an s, etc.)
We have an editor within our group. She’s a god-send and has spent numerous hours editing each story at least twice before I started the process of pulling all the stories into one file.
Now we have had the first draft printed it looks so different. Reading a story in A5 size, rather than A4 or on the screen, highlights a whole stack of other things that need correcting. Plus the formatting I chose (font and margins in particular) didn’t look as good on A5 paper as it did on A4 paper. So I now have the book back, together with a number of changes to make. A lot of changes.
In a book that is close to 300 pages only a handful of pages have no red marks on them. I was pleased to notice that my four stories have less marks than some others did, yet I still felt a touch of unreasonable emotion as this lady went though the changes with me.
I know the feelings and thoughts were unreasonable, as her changes are correct, necessary or made to produce consistency. I know that she is an editor and not emotionally attached to any particular story and thus is the best person to make these changes. I know she has talked to each of the writers prior to me making the changes and each writer has agreed and approved. Yet I still felt cross, hurt, upset that she made changes. And most of the book is not my writings.
Heaven help me when I get to a real editor with my own book, my own words and they suggest changes and corrections, strongly suggesting with no sitting down over a cuppa explaining.
At least I'm forwarned and can expect the emotions and deal with them.
Tell you what, producing this collection has been a huge learning experience and if for nothing else is a worthwhile endeavour.