Humbled by Copyediting: Guest Post by Elizabeth Fama
I just finished reviewing my copyedited manuscript and I learned a valuable lesson: I am a hack writer.
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Writer, Editor, Helper
(The Subversive Copy Editor)
Category Writer-Editor Relationships
Writing to Authors by “Feel”
Do you ever start to show someone how to do something, and then realize that you aren’t exactly sure how you do it, that you do it differently every time, and that ultimately it’s as much a matter of intuition and experience as it is of following instructions? Like making pie crust? Or juggling? Or explaining to a writer everything you’d like to change in her manuscript?
Pretty Apologies: For When You’re REALLY Wrong
Have you ever found yourself in an argument with a writer over an issue you’re rock-solid sure about, but because of your naturally generous and open-minded nature, you try to see the other point of view, and then it begins to dawn on you that the writer might actually have something of a point, and finally it hits you like that falling piano that you’re spectacularly wrong?
I’d like to thank the Academy…
By an evil coincidence, the deadline for sending the acknowledgments section of my new book* to my editor was last Sunday—on Oscars night. I had already drafted brief thanks to him, my writing group, and my family, and was merely…
Why Don’t We Follow Directions?
If you’re expecting me to scold writers for not reading cover letters carefully, I’m going to have to disappoint you. I could do it—standing on my head—but it would be hypocritical, because when it comes to not following directions, I’m…
“Leave My Prose Alone”: The Resistant Writer
“Please tell the copyeditor to leave my prose alone.” That’s an actual author request I encountered in a newly arrived manuscript. I looked at the first few pages. The content was complex, phrasing idiosyncratic, punctuation random. A more mature and…
You Want Me to What? Reading the Work of Friends
At her excellent blog, Love, Your Copyeditor, Ray Gunn recently wrote about the cons and pros (in that order) of having writer friends who need copyediting.
The Freelancer’s Dilemma: When an Estimate Is Low
Have you ever been partway into a freelance editing job only to find that it’s going to take a lot longer than you thought? Which should you do: bill for the originally estimated time and take a loss, or bill for the extra time and risk alienating the client?
For Writers: When Help Is Hard to Take
A writer should feel elated and grateful for help, but it’s not always that easy.
Misunderstood
Do you ever wake up peppy and bounce out of bed Tiggerlike, no need for coffee, dig in the back of the closet for that kicky little skirt, brush your teeth a bit too enthusiastically and splat a glop of toothpaste down the front of the kicky skirt . . .