Writing and Editing Skills: How do you hyphenate your career?
How can someone effectively combine writing and editing skills? By establishing what I call a “hyphenated career,” precisely that of a Writer-Editor!
Combine Writing and Editing Skills – Become a Writer-Editor
In my book The Business of Storytelling, I talk about how to create a writer-editor career, where you use what you learn as a writer to reinforce the editing side of your career and vice versa.
For those of us who enjoy taking on a variety of projects in our work, a hyphenated career can be a source of fulfillment and growth (both personal and career-related). I’ve always said I’m a better editor because I’m a writer, and I’m a better writer because I’m an editor.
The other day, a reader contacted me and said she was a different kind of hyphen: a bookseller-writer. I loved that! Her deep understanding of what readers enjoy reading makes her a better writer, and her understanding of writing and literature makes her a better bookseller.
A friend of mine is a great beta reader/big-picture editor because she’s also a visual artist (“Even painters info-dump,” she says.) I love the idea of there being all kinds of hyphenated careers possible for writers and editors.
If you’re considering extending your editing (or your writing) career in a new direction, you might enjoy exploring book doctoring and ghostwriting, and I have just the class for that starting October 7: Editorial Toolkit: Book Doctoring and Ghostwriting!
Tips for Editors & Writers
Focusing on the Big Picture
One of the first things I teach newer developmental/story editors is to focus on the big picture. That means looking for problems with a novel manuscript’s plot, character development, and setting. It means noticing perspective/point-of-view problems, flabby scenes, unnecessary exposition. It does not mean pointing out every unnecessary adverb or overused word. Don’t Overwhelm the…
Unpacking Your Assumptions about Fiction
If you’ve ever taken a class from me, you know that I have a pathological hatred of using questions in editorial queries. By this I mean asking questions like, “What is Joe’s motivation?” where you are, or think you are, asking the author to address the problem of Joe’s lack of motivation. Use statements instead…
What Is the Difference Between Line Editing and Copyediting?
Line editing (LE) and copyediting (CE) are related skills, as they both focus on the sentence level. Obviously there is significant overlap between the two skills. Basic Definition of Copyediting But copyediting is about ensuring consistency across a manuscript, correcting egregious errors, making sure the manuscript conforms to a specific style guide, and otherwise smoothing…
