I believe Stephen King said that in his book, On Writing. Even if he wasn't the first its the first place I read it. While I am just a minor fan of the King, I am a huge fan of On Writing. Great book about writing. A straight forward approach with none of the stardust of inspiration bullshit. The reason I am bring this up is last night I received feedback from my proofreader/editors.
Wow.
Boric G gave me a seven page, point by point detail of edits. He'd tell me right now there should be hyphens in point-by-point. It was fantastic. It was like a verbal treasure map to all my mistakes. He provided fixes and great suggestions. Plus, having not read the manuscript before he was able to point out discrepancies of names and where more clarification was needed.
I have a fiction background and I tend to have a loose prose style. Fragmented sentences. Wandering thoughts. Grammatical hand waving. After reading through his editorial suggestions I could see how he was making what I was trying to say clearer. Just fantastic. It is one of the best edits I've received in my three decades of wasting paper and ink.
Onto the other editor that's helping, Ken Harrison aka The Rusty Battle Axe has sent me his edits and his suggestions while not as detailed as Boric's he pinpoint some weak prose and gave great suggestions.
With these two guys helping with the edits I have no excuse for The Manor #3 not to be great. If it isn't great its all me cause these guys have really went out of their way to help. And for that guys I thank both of you.
The Manor #3 will be ready for release this Friday.
Oh, and one more thing, Jason Sholtis sent me a kick ass piece of art. I want to print it on a professional grade paper and frame it.
PDF
Right on!
ReplyDeleteOn Writing is a fantastic book. I appreciate how he opened up his own process and even gave examples. As a long-time King fan, I dove into On Writing and was blown away. Great stuff and solid advice.
Also, I'd like to second your nominating Boric as a fantastic editor. He, too, has worked on some of my self-publications as a fantastic editor. His perspective, comments, and grammatical edits are invaluable. All-around good guy.
[blush]
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tim and Dylan. It's always really a pleasure to be able to help. My red pen is always available!
Yeah, I'm one of THOSE sickos. The best job I've had was two years at the State Supreme Court--spent a lot of time writing and researching, but also proofing opinions from 9 other clerks. I'll never have a job that great again...not in the legal field, anyway.
And I can't wait to see Jason's final pic either.
[/blush]
As far as On Writing is concerned, I'll throw my vote in as well. It's a good read and a valuable resource for anyone that wants to become a better writer. Just don't expect King's gratuitous sex scenes or descriptive acts of violence.
I mean, unless I really missed something when I read it.
Tim: I guess you can tell I work as a CEO...I am used to staffing this sort of thing out and then wait for the Executive Summary.
ReplyDeleteBoric: Thanks for doing the heavy lifting.
Glad to hear it's own the way. Good editing is definitely indispensable.
ReplyDeleteMy wallet awaits the update that #3 is available!
ReplyDeleteI got gloriously detailed commentary back from Sean Punch on turning in my manuscript for GURPS: Technical Grappling. The commentary was *longer than the original draft* (though not the final draft).
ReplyDeleteAs you imply: worth its weight in gold.