The Editorial Process

Authors often create characters who are perfectly suited for the story that is being told. The brilliant detective is put to the task of finding out whodunnit, the brilliant surgeon must operate on the life-threatening tumor, the brilliant commando must rescue the hostage. If these characters have suitable antagonists to oppose them, then enough conflict…

A while back I took a class on the algebra of symmetries and it turned out to be taught by a philosopher masquerading as a mathematics professor. Algebra, he told us, comes from the word al-jabr, which means restoration by balancing. “Restoring the unknown,” the teacher said. He went on to talk about how having…

When our authors write stories with perspective problems, generally they’re in for a long haul during the revision process. An author who can’t “see” the head-hopping (jumping from one character’s perspective to another’s within a scene) they’re doing needs a lot of sentence-level handholding to get it right. Steps to Take Since a big perspective…

Recently I wrote about being asked to do a manuscript evaluation for free (which earned a big fat “no, thanks” from me) and a commenter suggested that maybe briefly reviewing the ms and offering some affirmative feedback would ensure the author returned when they were ready for an edit. The thing is, I’m not their…

A questions I’m often asked is, “What are some of the biggest challenges people have in learning to become developmental editors?” This is usually from someone interested in developmental editing (particularly of fiction) as a career. The biggest challenge for people who are already working as copy editors or proofreaders is being able to let…

Back when I was active in martial arts, I used to teach a class or two a week for my instructor. He (and I) knew that one of the best ways to get better at a skill is to try to teach it. This is a humbling process because it points out all the things…