I spent many years learning to be an editor. This training focused on the “what” and the “how” – on what editors do and how they should do it. Recently, I’ve been wondering about the “why.” Why am I doing this? What does it mean to me?
No, I’m not having a midlife crisis! I'm just curious. Why am I committed to this craft? What do I love about editing?
Listening to your story
Editing is attentive listening in a world of noise where true listening is rare.
I listen to your story. Whether it’s an academic book or a memoir, all narrative nonfiction tells a story. As a listener -- the receiver of your story -- I don't start "editing" right away. I read the entire story to experience it and to see what it's all about.
Here's a little story: I'm ten years old, sitting on the top step of a friend’s house reading Winne the Pooh. The neighbourhood kids roll and flip on the lawn, shouting like a field of grasshoppers. Suddenly, silence. I look up. The kids are bunched together, taunting grins on their faces. I close the book and run home.
I look back on this scene with amusement. Even then, I had my nose in a book.
I still possess those awesome powers of concentration. I listen to your words, and also to the current beneath the words – to what Dinty Moore calls the "heart story," and perhaps to the deeper story wanting to surface.
Being of service
When you think "editor," does a red pen come to mind?
To be of service, I have to let go of my ego. I want you to be happy with my editing, and I offer my perspective as a highly sensitive reader. But I have to accept that you may not agree with all of my suggestions. That’s okay. If we disagree, we talk it through and learn from each other.
The book belongs to you. You created it, and your name is on the cover. If I do my job well, my work will be invisible.
As a freelance editor, I am especially free to be of service to the author. I’m not in the role of a gatekeeper; I don’t reject or accept your work for publication. I don’t hold the purse strings. I am in service to you, the author, and together we are in service to the story. The story, in turn, serves the reader and generates thought and conversation.
Editors are in service to this kindred community of readers.
To be of service, I have to let go of my ego. I want you to be happy with my editing, and I offer my perspective as a highly sensitive reader. But I have to accept that you may not agree with all of my suggestions. That’s okay. If we disagree, we talk it through and learn from each other.
The book belongs to you. You created it, and your name is on the cover. If I do my job well, my work will be invisible.
As a freelance editor, I am especially free to be of service to the author. I’m not in the role of a gatekeeper; I don’t reject or accept your work for publication. I don’t hold the purse strings. I am in service to you, the author, and together we are in service to the story. The story, in turn, serves the reader and generates thought and conversation.
Editors are in service to this kindred community of readers.
When you think "editor," does a red pen come to mind? Your words crossed out and mistakes circled with authoritative marks?
For me, editing is not adversarial. It is not a battle of wills. It is an act of service.