2024, Gatherings, Uncategorized, Words

Edits

39 Comments

A couple of months ago I was the assisting minister at our Lutheran Sunday service. Part of that job is reading, with the presiding pastor, the prayers she wrote for the service. I read through the prayers and found some grammatical errors which I corrected. I explained to the pastor what I had done, and she was grateful. Our senior pastor overheard me and got really excited and asked me if I liked editing. I told her I did. She asked me if I would be willing to edit a book she was writing, and I said I would.

She has written and published a book already. The current book is a series of twenty four devotions for Advent. The basic premise of the book is that our families of origin hand down all sorts of unhealthy expectations to us that make the Christmas holidays onerous. She is using many of the theories of one of my favorite family therapists, Murray Bowen, in the book. What could be more fun?

I have edited the first five devotions, and she plans to get the next installment to me next week. I am a devotee of the Oxford comma, and I like active verb usage. She writes well and it will be nice to see the final product when it is printed.

What kind of a manuscript editor would you be? Name some authors whose styles you like and dislike.

39 thoughts on “Edits”

  1. I worked at a Chinese weekly newspaper between 2000 and 2005. Translating, then editing my translations. That led to a couple book and article “translate and edit” jobs. In each, I was frustrated that, after seeing their work in English, the authors wanted to go back and revise what they wrote in Chinese, so delayed publication.
    Retiring in 2018 and looking around for something to do, I landed on what I thought was an editing job at a local archive/research center/publisher in town. It turned out that they didn’t want an editor, but a dogsbody to do archival stuff with heaps of disorganized stuff. I dropped out after a couple weeks.
    More recently I joined a committee that runs a local ecumenical choir. I thought I would be allowed to write and edit for them. I, too, like the Oxford comma and active verbs. After learning that the committee would edit my work, I’m ready to drop that gig, too. I will finish out my year, then fade back into the crowd.

    With my own work, I find that I edit almost ceaselessly, so have to call a halt and “send it out as is”. That often means sloppy work, but at least it’s off my desk.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. I’m with you regarding editing my own work, David. At a certain point, usually when I start going mildly crazy, I decide enough already and send it to my hired editor. At least I think I give him a cleaner than most manuscript.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  2. Well, James Joyce and William Faulkner come to mind. I’ve never been able to get through James Joyce. And despite the fact that I don’t care for William Faulkner, I have read all of his works.

    I’m not sure I’d be a good editor. Despite my love of the subjunctive and also the Oxford comma, I am more and more coming to the conclusion that English is (and should be) too fluid for serious editing. That’s grammar and usage of course — there’s plenty of style and content that should just be edited right off the planet.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

  3. I used to think I’d like to be an editor of some sort, but when I realized the level of detail involved, I changed my mind – I’d be second guessing myself all the time. I’d need to take a class! I understand (and love) the Oxford comma, but what’s all this about active verb usage?

    I do edit lots of stuff while reading by just shouting inside my head…

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I assume what is meant by “active verb usage” is that prime Strunk & White admonition, “Avoid (where possible) use of forms of the verb ‘to be’.” Those are inherently passive.

      I favor the Oxford comma in the interest of clarity but I can’t say I love it. We’re just friends.

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  4. I like to kid myself that I would have been a good editor. I like to adhere to the Oxford comma too. Unfortunately, it seems like love for the English language, for using it properly, for really thinking about what you are trying to say, and saying it well, has passed into history. People who would benefit from the use of the autocorrect and editing functions on their devices turn them off, and complain that those functions are annoying. I’ve never commented how annoying it is to read all of the spelling and grammar errors, or to try to make sense of what they’re trying to say.

    How can I choose someone whose work I would want to edit? I’ve never published anything; I don’t feel qualified to be an editor for anyone who has.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  7. I think I’d be a thorough but extremely slow editor. I use ProWritingAid to help me with grammar, usage, simplifying, etc. And I’m a firm believer in the Oxford comma. But my overriding rule on commas is that if one is needed to insure the clarity and understanding of the sentence, put it in. If it adds confusion when used, take it out. I HATE having to reread a sentence because I couldn’t understand what the author was saying.

    Fave authors? Krueger–combines good tension and suspense with lyrical, descriptive prose. Pat Conroy–deep storyteller. Lee Child–lots of rhythm in his prose. David Baldacci–lots of high concept stories and memorable characters. Elmore Leonard–outstanding dialogue. Michael Perry–funnier than Garrison Keillor. Jack London, Sigurd Olson–outdoors, nature, wilderness. Dennis Lehane–master of dark suspense. Chandler, Hammett–masters of a bygone era of detective stories. Brian Freeman–just an all-around great detective mystery storyteller.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. Oops! Accidentally hit “reply.” Many other faves.

      Regarding authors I don’t like: Most of the time, if my first read of a book of theirs doesn’t work for me, I don’t read other books by that author, so I don’t feel qualified to say if I like them or not. Overall, I have huge problems with any book that is bloated with unnecessary detail and/or tries too hard to be brilliant, “Literary,” prophetic, the next Oprah Book Club pick, or whose message is so heavy-handed as to be annoying.

      Chris in Owatonna

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    3. I think the thing that distinguishes Michael Perry from Garrison Keillor is not that he’s funnier but that he’s more authentic. Perry has actually lived the things whereof he writes and his reflections are idiosyncratic and genuine. Keillor’s are all contrived. He imagines a world without leaving his chair and, while amusing, they are ultimately only play on a stage set.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  8. I’ve occasionally edited short pieces of other person’s writing and done so using my inherent sense of grammar and clarity but without any formal training in the style books or technicalities of grammar.

    When I’ve written professionally, usually business to business brochures and promotional material and articles for an online how-to site, my work—which I have close-read myself— has been reviewed by an editor but not altered noticeably.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    1. I’s short- you could read it in an afternoon. I think it’s worthwhile if you are going to do any amount of writing. The rules are basic and sensible and easy to remember.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

  10. It seems to me that when you like an author, you are not usually conscious of their style. It’s transparent. It’s only when an author’s style irritates you that style becomes an issue.

    There are so many elements that comprise a style, many of which an editor can’t affect. I remember being thoroughly irritated by Pirsig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. I actually finished it but found it agonizingly sophomoric. I was never tempted to read anything else by him.

    I remember quitting Pynchon’s Gravity’s Rainbow; I found it repellently self-indulgent.

    I have never understood what people admired about George Saunder’s Lincoln in the Bardo. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein’s often quoted quip about Oakland, “there’s no there there.”

    There are many other writers, some of whom I know are admired by other Baboons, that I personally find objectionable, but the reason in many cases is not expressly their style but their sensibility.

    Liked by 5 people

    Reply

    1. Thank you Bill…. Nice to know I’m not alone. I’m not sure I’ve ever met another person who didn’t like Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Thank you. I’ve also started Gravity’s Rainbow three times because it always comes up on one of those lists of books. But I can’t get through it. And I also couldn’t figure out what everybody liked about Lincoln in the Bardo.

      We are aligned today!!

      Liked by 4 people

      Reply

      1. Louis Bromfield came up recently. We were reading different titles but the one I had, Pleasant Valley sorely needed an editor to cut out about half of his repetitive rants about farmers not attending to the health of their soil. Remove that diatribe and there wasn’t much left.

        Liked by 1 person

        Reply

        1. I read The Green Bay Tree. I liked it enough to think I might read another of his… guess I can scratch Pleasant Valley. Maybe The Rains Came… I’ve seen the movie but assume it will be quite different from the book!

          Like

  11. I just have to add that editing yourself online is especially difficult. It seems you never see the boo-boos until your comment is posted and it’s too late to change it.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  13. What a Busy Day!

    OT: I landed at Best Buy today (supporting Anna’s career) editing several household appliances. The dishwasher has died and is leaking, so we are handwashing dishes until the new one arrives at the end of October. And then there is the 20 year set of laundry appliances. The dryer is slowly giving way to age,so things are not getting dry anymore. S0-o-o-o-o that also will be replaced. Expensive day!

    OT2: Phoebe went to work with VS’s YA today and came home tired and happy. It was “Take Your Dog To Work” Day, so Phoebe put on a professional wardrobe and went to work.

    Re: writing styles. I recently discovered that Charles Dickens’ writing style is far too florid for my taste. I think my own expectations of writing changed. I remember reading his work as a teen and just loving Oliver Twist and the Christmas Carol. I requested Blevins Book Group read Great Expectations because I still had not read that one, and the pressure created by a group commitment was what I needed to get myself to do it. Dickens just goes on and on about characters and events. I liked his characters and I liked the plot. He just took too many words to say it all.

    Authors who write in a style I enjoy? Elizabeth George (waiting for the next Lynley/Havers novel), Julie Schumacher, who is so hilarious that I don’t care about her style (thank you VS), Goodwin for history, Nathaniel Philbrook for history, and Mark Twain. I thought Kristin Hannah knocked it out of the park with her books, “The Nightingale” and “The Women.” There are many I dislike, especially Jonathan Franzen who is both depressing and has nothing to say that I want to read.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

    2. Phoebe had a great time at the office and met a few other dogs that she likes. Apparently she wasn’t crazy about the hour-long meeting as she didn’t get enough petting all the way through!!

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

  14. I have enjoyed the works of a lot of different writers, but at this point I’d be hard pressed to name one favorite. Faulkner would certainly be in my top ten. Willa Cather would probably be in that group, too.

    Bill Bryson has such a quirky way of seeing the world, and I love his way with words. The same goes for David Sedaris.

    Will Weaver, who grew up on a dairy farm near Park Rapids, is a masterful short story writer who draws me right in.

    I can think of several writers who have written written books I loved and who have also written some pretty disappointing ones. Guess I was lucky that I read the ones I enjoyed first.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

Leave a reply to Barbara in Rivertown Cancel reply