Now, m\u2019lords and ladies, I walk a tightrope this week.<\/p>\n
On the one hand, I love good editorial services as much as I love apples fried in butter and cinnamon. Good editing is the rock on which all of Jericho Writers is built, and it matters hugely.<\/p>\n
But, but, but.<\/p>\n
Editing is advice. That\u2019s all it is<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And yes, the advice is usually right. And if you take it books get better.<\/p>\n But you\u2019re the writer. You\u2019re the monarch of your text. In that little realm, your writ runs absolute. And in the end, the rule that matters is simply this: does a proposed change sound right to you? Or do you prefer it the way it is?<\/p>\n When Elizabeth Gilbert was told by an editor that she had to kill one of the female characters in her A Signature of All Things<\/em>, she said no. That character stayed in.<\/p>\n In one of our Summer Festival webinars, Sophie Hannah was asked what to do if an agent told you that you couldn\u2019t write the sort of book you wanted to write. She said (my paraphrase) to hell with that. Write the book anyway. It\u2019s your life, not theirs.<\/p>\n When a copy-editor wanted to change the tone of my writing (meaning, specifically, Fiona Griffiths\u2019 maddeningly quirky voice) I said no. And, because it was a copy-edit, I had to say no about a million times.<\/p>\n Insert a main verb into a sentence fragment, which I had deliberately wanted as a fragment? No. Stet<\/em>.<\/p>\n (Stet<\/em> is the Latin for \u201clet it stand\u201d and has long been the traditional way to undo a copy-editing change.)<\/p>\n Take a list of proper nouns and separate them with commas instead of, as I had done, with full stops? No. Stet<\/em>.<\/p>\n Take a series of abruptly short sentences and link them into one longer and more elegantly flowing one? No. No way. Stet stet stettety stet.<\/em><\/p>\n And you. You\u2019re the same.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s say you are wise enough to come to Jericho Writers for a manuscript assessment. We\u2019ll come back to you with a long report on where we see problems and possible solutions.<\/p>\n Your job is not to obey us.<\/em><\/u><\/p>\n On the contrary, if an editor says to you, \u201cI think there\u2019s a problem with X and you should probably consider doing Y,\u201d ask yourself how that feels.<\/p>\n Mostly \u2013 I\u2019d think about 60% of the time \u2013 you\u2019ll think that the editor is right about both problem and solution. Great.<\/p>\n Then maybe 20% of the time, you\u2019ll think, shucks, I can see the issue, but I\u2019d really like to do Z not Y. Also great.<\/p>\n But in both these cases, you\u2019re relying on your own gut. Your own sense of perfect. Your sense of this story and what it should be in that luminous land where all of your artistic goals are perfectly achieved.<\/p>\n You\u2019re not obeying an editor. You\u2019re simply using that editor to refine your own sense of what your manuscript wants and needs.<\/p>\n And that leaves the final 20% where you think, \u201cYou know what? I get why you think this denouement fails \/ this character is unnecessary \/ this twist is implausible, or whatever else. I get why you think that and I DON\u2019T CARE.\u201d<\/p>\n When I\u2019ve had those situations with my editors in the past \u2013 often with minor issues, sometimes with big ones \u2013 I haven\u2019t apologised and usually haven\u2019t even explained.<\/p>\n I just return my manuscript with the changes made to my satisfaction. The 20% of issues where I\u2019ve just ignored my editor \u2013 well, so what? If they want to cause a fuss, they can, but they never have. Their job is just to get me to deliver the best damn manuscript I can. It\u2019s not to get me to check a series of boxes on some kind of Manuscript Approval Checklist.<\/p>\n You\u2019re the same. You\u2019re the boss. You\u2019re the monarch of your text.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t let anyone tell you otherwise.<\/p>\n All hail!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now, m\u2019lords and ladies, I walk a tightrope this week. On the one hand, I love good editorial services as much as I love apples fried in butter and cinnamon. Good editing is the rock on which all of Jericho Writers is built, and it matters hugely. But, but, but. Editing is advice. That\u2019s all<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":6333,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n