Sex & Drugs & Editing – Someone else’s Dreams
leave a comment »
Designed by Stuart Miles at http://www.freedigitalphotos.net
Beyond another’s desires; past the piles of mutilated bodies; outside Great Expectations and Pride and Prejudice; Far from the Madding Crowd; yonder in the minds of musicians, artists, doctors and scientists; further than the Chariots of Fire can take you, there sits an editor.
How does an editor deal with different genres? How do they work with writers from a variety of nationalities, dissimilar religions, unique principles and uncommon personalities? The answer is good editors who are highly trained with much life experience will find a way.
Life experience does not mean age; it means educational, community, lifestyle, organisational, reading, listening, viewing and writing experience. There are many younger people with all these types of experience, and of course, there are many who don’t have this.
I recently spoke to an editor (under 30) who told me they would not edit a book with a sex scene. My reply was, ”If life contains sex, why shouldn’t a book?” I understand this editor’s point of view; I just don’t agree with it.
A good editor will be able to handle what any writer can lay down on the page and manage what they have, and to make it the best possible work. Someone else’s dreams are important; Ken Follett, master storyteller and best-selling author said, “A very good editor is almost a collaborator.” Editors actually do collaborate on writer’s dreams, or at least they should.
One of the main reasons why books fail is because they have received little or no editing. As a writer who has produced four novels and many short stories, the ones which have been properly edited, have sold the best. Because the story had correct transitions, it gelled as a whole, things weren’t missing and premises left unexplained. The editors solved all these problems, and others.
I saw my stories as ideas, and not as a whole. I heard my words ring true and clear, but that was far from what they were on the page. I’ve read so many books that are similar to mine, the unedited ones. Or I should say, I have part-read them, because the gaps, the unedited jumble that confused me as a reader made me close the book and never pick it up again. And, it made me never buy another book from that writer.
If you put your book out there because you are over enthusiastic and overjoyed by having finished it, without proper editing, you will fail. It will turn readers off, and it will turn you off writing, when no one responds or likes what you’ve written.
Proper editing costs money and demands time. Don’t let years of work and tears go to waste on something you truly loved. Not much is more soul-destroying than to find out you’ve been writing on your own, and only for yourself. An editor will help you grow as a writer, and storyteller.
For me, a good editor has many attributes, but the most important ones are having the necessary skills, life experience, and empathy for another’s dreams.