Editing for The Big Picture
tags:
editing, publishing, writing
Pencil in hand, I am reading the first draft of the manuscript sent to me by my new author, Tamarian Graffham. This is my absolute favorite part of being a publisher and is the number one reason I do this work. It’s also the reason…
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leave a comment Running in Water--Swimming on Land
tags:
editing, revision, writing craft
After a sleepless night, place you feet in large swim flippers. Suspend your dominant arm in a sling. Place ankle weights on your legs and a wrist weight on your free arm. Tape a couple of fingers together for good measure. Borrow a friend’s prescription…
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Editing: Warping the Past
Editing. Sometimes I love it, sometimes it’s just hard. It’s going back in time to a moment when something came into life on the page and then standing back and looking at it. The benefit of time, of distance, of the wider picture allows you…
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How Do You Edit Your Work?
tags:
editing, interview, revising
The Internet simply makes it too easy to publish. We need to learn how to edit before we send our work to a magazine editor, agent, or any kind of reader. I recently interviewed author Mur Lafferty about the topic. Her essay, “My Albatross,” laid…
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Interview with Award-Winning Editor Ellen Datlow (Partial. View the rest on The Writers’ Block)
tags:
books, editing, Ellen Datlow, interviews, writing
We have a special treat for all the readers of this blog. For those of you that may not know, Ellen Datlow is an award-winning editor of multiple anthologies, including The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror (with Kelly Link and Gavin J. Grant. The anthology is going into its 20th year) and Salon Fantastique (with Terri Windling). She has the distinction of winning seven World Fantasy Awards and several Bram Stoker awards, among many others. Ellen Datlow is probably best known for helping to develop the talents of science fiction and horror writers and has worked with and published some of those genres’ brightest stars, such as Ursula K. Le Guin and Stephen King.
As a writer, editing is an important but often difficult task, and it’s nice to know that there are editors out there like Ellen. Seriously, folks, I’ve had nightmares about editing my work. Giant semicolons and commas chasing me like something out of Alice in Wonderland…
Without further ado:
Interview with Ellen Datlow -
NG: What is the first story you remember editing and do you know what that author does now?
Ellen: I don’t remember the first author I edited at OMNI (my first job in genre publishing) but I edited “Johnny Mnemonic” by William Gibson and “Eyes I Dare not Meet in Dreams” by Dan Simmons and edited several others by each of them thereafter.
Both are bestselling authors. Bill has a new novel called Spook Country coming out this spring and Dan’s novel The Terror has just been published to excellent reviews.
NG: As an editor, what are your pet peeves about some of the stories you come across?
Ellen: They’re not properly formatted (those that are single spaced just go into the trash). Stories that are completely inappropriate for what I’m editing at the time despite the fact that the author should have seen the guidelines. Stories without self-addressed-stamped envelopes, stories that are emailed to me….
NG: You’ve said before that “most of your job as an editor is to prevent authors from falling.” Can you elaborate on this?
Ellen: Once I make the decision to buy a story, my job is to help the author produce the best story she can. If there are problems with a plot point or the ending, or inconsistencies in character or a section that needs clarification, I’ll try to guide the author by making suggestions and asking questions. For example, if I don’t understand what’s going on, I’ll ask the author to explain to me what she thinks is going on. Further, I’ll say that while not everything must be on paper, if she, the author, doesn’t understand what’s going on then neither will the reader–and I think communication with the reader is crucial. This doesn’t mean that everything needs to be spelled out. There can be ambiguity in a story, as long as it’s intentional.
NG: What do you do when a writer resists your suggestions?
Ellen: There are a few different situations wherein this might happen: If I know I want to buy the story because I love it and the fixes I’ve suggested are minor, I’ll let it go. And if the author can persuade me that he is right, I’ll let it go [meaning I’ll buy the story anyway].
If I like a story and think that the story would be stronger with certain problems addressed, I may make suggestions and ask the writer for a rewrite—with no guarantees until I read the rewrite.
Or if it’s a story I think is interesting and might work with a rewrite I may ask to see the story again if it’s completely rewritten. No guarantees. If the writer resists, I won’t buy the story. But as I’ve said, even with a rewrite there’s no guarantee that I’ll buy the rewritten story.
NG: There are a number of new writers emerging in the science fiction, fantasy, and horror genres. Is there anything that stands out to you between those that succeed in those genres and those that do not?
Ellen: It depends on what you mean by “succeed” –there are some terrible writers who are successful, in that their books or stories always sell and that they make a living off their fiction writing. I’ll assume you mean “succeed” in my terms—in other words, the writers whose work I regularly publish or would like to publish.
The voice of an author is very important and those who are coming at a story from an unusual direction. I personally prefer visual writing in which I can “see” what is happening.
There are plenty of mediocre writers who succeed in the short run—they have little to say but they say it in a readable style. They are writing for success, not out of passion. I don’t think their work will last. Instead of trying to become the “next big thing” new writers should concentrate on discovering what they need to write, what they’re passionate about. They need to find their voice. I’ve seen some newer writers who wrote a few good stories and then suddenly blossom—one writer I’m thinking of has been writing a series of stories in an odd futuristic world, moving from pretty good fantasy stories to unusually, thought-provoking sf stories.
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View the rest of the interview & leave comments at The Writers’ Block
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