On Editors
Been a bit of back-and-forth about these strange and elusive creatures, recently, so let’s start out with the core and unavoidable fact:
You need one.
No-one can edit their own work. We’re too emotionally close to it, and when we finally hand that MS in, we’ve read it so many damn times that we can’t as much as see it, any more. Your editor is an all-important, second pair of eyes, picking up the stuff that you don’t. They’re your most constructive critic, your catch-all and your friend. It’s their job to take your story (novel/poem/barfed up word.doc of utter drivel) and to see and bring out the best in it. To make it as good as it can possibly be, to find the themes and threads and images that you didn’t quite paint clearly enough, and to bring them to the fore.
To identify those sadly-doomed darlings.
This isn’t say that you can consciously turn in crap, by the way. Let’s not make the poor buggers’ jobs any harder than they need to be.
Your editor has an eye that you don’t. Yes, they have direct market experience, of course, and if you’re writing IP fiction, then they’re also there to guard the License, its lore and tone of voice. As much as any of that, though, your editor knows, understands and puts into place the difference between ‘objective’ – ‘that doesn’t work, change it’ – and subjective – ‘I don’t/like that’. It’s a critical standpoint, and not something we can ever do for ourselves.
Your editor will also tell you how to fix things. A well as pointing out the stuff that doesn’t work, they can tell you how to sort it. If you’ve mired yourself/your characters in some horrible Chapter of Doom, conninving some ghastly piece of wrangling to get them out again (come on, we’ve all done it), your editor is there to untangle you. They’ll suggest alternative methods to fix the issue, up to and including how to back right up and not put the characters in the hole in the first place. This may you mean rewriting scenes, sometimes quite a lot of scenes, but hey, that’s just a part of the process.
Please note that your editor won’t write those scenes for you, and not should they. They’re there to nudge, and to help you write them for yourself.
Most editors will also pay you compliments, pointing out where something does work and/or where they’ve liked what you’ve written. They’re good like that, spreading little treats, like breadcrumbs through the labyrinth.
Despite those tasty, tasty rewards, though, being edited can sometimes hurt. It can be frustrating, and it can make you a wee bit grumpy. You go to do one fix, and a dozen other things pull straight out of shape. You may have to chase a single theme, all the way through your narrative, constantly picking back up. Or maybe you really, really want to keep that particular scene or paragraph, that one, there, the one you’re so proud of.
So, can you? If you really like the thing?
In answer: no, you don’t have to agree with everything your editor says, but do think about what you’re doing. Think about their reasons for suggesting the change, and about yours for not wanting it. An editor is not there for a confrontation, and they’re not doing things, just to be difficult. Your work is done together, and it’s not a space for pouting, or for pushing back, just because you’re stubborn. If you want to keep a thing, then do you have a solid and reasonable argument? Is it in keeping with its (possibly changed) context? Is there a genuine cause for this particularly phrase or scene? Open a discussion if necessary, and between you, you can sort the thing.
More than anything, though, if you do have a disagreement with an editor, for the love of every dog, don’t take the to the fucking Socials to moan about it.
Reading: Virgina Woolf’s Orlando, illustrated by Varvara Alay. A somewhat off-piste for me, but am thoroughly enjoying the love-cadence of its language and reading something that’s so absolutely different to anything I would usually pick up.
Watching: Isaac’s and my Marvel watch-through has reached Loki, which I really didn’t get, the first time round. Am enjoying it much more on a rewatch, though, with its viciously sharp, very clearly plotted script, its side-swipes at Narcissism, and Hiddleston’s charm and elegance being so wonderfully out of place. Loving the fractal imagery and theme, the Apocalypse backdrops, and the sterling performances from Owen Wilson and Sophia di Martino both.
Playing: Just downloading the new HALO, and celebrating a-all that Aliens goodness.
Space soldiers, dude, they’re a tale that never gets old.