I had a rather unusual pleasure today.\u00a0 I edited a piece for a friend.<\/p>\n
Now this chick can write. <\/em>Funny?\u00a0 Oh very yes!\u00a0 Clear?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Has a specific voice.\u00a0 My goodness yes.<\/p>\n So, when I saw it and asked if I could edit it, it wasn\u2019t because what she did sucked.\u00a0 It was because it was good<\/em> and just needed a few rough edges sanded down and polished.<\/p>\n Something that is a real myth about the writing world is that an editor will just ruin<\/em> your piece.\u00a0 I even believed it for awhile.\u00a0 Blame it on some of Heinlein\u2019s snarky comments if you want.\u00a0 But the truth is that no editor wants to ruin your piece, kill your voice or anything like that.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the editor\u2019s job.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the editor\u2019s job to make you look brilliant. Well, insofar as possible.\u00a0 Can\u2019t make bricks without straw.\u00a0 But what an editor wants is for anything that passes her desk to be readable, instructive, entertaining or whatever might be the goal of the publication.<\/p>\n Her comment was, \u201cOh wow. Ok that’s amazing. I totally see. You sort of turned it into the piece I wanted it to be in the first place with the editing.\u201d<\/p>\n That means I managed to do my<\/em> job in working on it!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had a rather unusual pleasure today.\u00a0 I edited a piece for a friend. Now this chick can write. Funny?\u00a0 Oh very yes!\u00a0 Clear?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 Has a specific voice.\u00a0 My goodness yes. So, when I saw it and asked if I could edit it, it wasn\u2019t because what she did sucked.\u00a0 It was because it … <\/p>\n