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Oct. 23rd, 2006 10:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alanajoliI've had the priveledge to work with some really exceptional editors since I started as a writer. Jim Person, the editor I work with at Thomson Gale on newsletter articles is wonderful; he cleans up the writing in such a way that I sound like myself, but I sound like the best possible version of myself. Basically, he makes me look good.
I was discussing today with my novel editor, Shawn Merwin, how I've been going through his edits and thinking, "Why didn't I write it like that the first time?" Though the question was rhetorical, he responded with a great quote from Philip Roth's novel The Ghostwriter.
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on the sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste.”
Worrying about the sentences, while important, is secondary to telling the story. When you have a good editor you can trust, you'll come out glowing on the other side. I'm feeling very lucky at the moment.
--
Alas, my writing is not going as well as going over the other edits. It occurs to me that I should have realized when I didn't turn in the final for Departure (the novel currently being edited) until the first week of September that a November 15 deadline for the third novel was going to be challenging to say the least. But no, I had to keep taking on other assignments...
Someday, perhaps, I will learn.
Currently Reading A Bit of Rock by Robert Beers, which you can preview in its chapter-by-chapter version at Baeg Tobar. The other novels, alas, have to wait.
Currently Watching Heroes. I know people are complaining about the build up and about how the plot hasn't really solidified yet (although progress was just made tonight), but it doesn't bother me. I'm loving all this character development and not having any idea what's really going on. It's good stuff.
I was discussing today with my novel editor, Shawn Merwin, how I've been going through his edits and thinking, "Why didn't I write it like that the first time?" Though the question was rhetorical, he responded with a great quote from Philip Roth's novel The Ghostwriter.
“I turn sentences around. That’s my life. I write a sentence and then I turn it around. Then I look at it and I turn it around again. Then I have lunch. Then I come back in and write another sentence. Then I have tea and turn the new sentence around. Then I read the two sentences over and turn them both around. Then I lie down on the sofa and think. Then I get up and throw them out and start from the beginning. And if I knock off from this routine for as long as a day, I’m frantic with boredom and a sense of waste.”
Worrying about the sentences, while important, is secondary to telling the story. When you have a good editor you can trust, you'll come out glowing on the other side. I'm feeling very lucky at the moment.
--
Alas, my writing is not going as well as going over the other edits. It occurs to me that I should have realized when I didn't turn in the final for Departure (the novel currently being edited) until the first week of September that a November 15 deadline for the third novel was going to be challenging to say the least. But no, I had to keep taking on other assignments...
Someday, perhaps, I will learn.
Currently Reading A Bit of Rock by Robert Beers, which you can preview in its chapter-by-chapter version at Baeg Tobar. The other novels, alas, have to wait.
Currently Watching Heroes. I know people are complaining about the build up and about how the plot hasn't really solidified yet (although progress was just made tonight), but it doesn't bother me. I'm loving all this character development and not having any idea what's really going on. It's good stuff.
