Editors...are they friends or foes?

My speculative fiction writers group meets tomorrow at our favorite diner, Zoto’s (free plug).  And I am excited because we have some new writers who are coming to join our merry band of writers.  One of things that seems to always come up as we discuss various story ideas, and ask the all-important “what if” questions that define our genre,  should we use technical jargon to help shape our stories, if we should listen to the editors.

In my opinion I say sometimes. Technical jargon must be used to help define the science in science fiction and that is a must. But everything else can be short, powerful words and short sentences with the occasional long one to help shape and frame an idea.

Especially when writing any type of speculative fiction that intertwines your fiction with some aspect of real life methodology and science. I know the number one killer for science fiction writers is their lack of science, editors are not dummies, and some are actual scientist so they can tell when you’re trying to slip them a bill of goods. Editors and publishers who deal in speculative fiction have a pretty keen eye on what readers want, and expect. Granted not always, but they are much more in tune with what readers want and expect in their fiction.

Ok as I tell everyone in the meetings, not everyone wants to write professionally, but if you are coming to these meetings chances are that you do want to be published, either self or traditionally, but published is the goal. To do that we have to heed the gate keepers, i.e. the editors and publishers, and listen to what they say.

This is how we go from average writers to good writers. I tell everyone that rewriting is a huge part of what we do, sometimes we can guess the issues we have and can fix them ourselves, but most of the time we don’t. We’re simply too close to see the problems. 

To paraphrase a line from a current movie, “…So read carefully, get away from your writing, detach your feelings and read at arm’s length, because the closer you are, the fewer mistakes you'll actually see.” With apologizes to Ed Solomon, Boaz Yakin and Edward Ricourt, writers of “Now You See Me.”

Don’t rewrite right away, no it is more important to get the whole story out, expunged from your system. Once you have everything out, give yourself a few days. At the last meeting I mentioned I walk away after I finish a work. I simply put it aside and forget about it for about a week to ten days. Once I have regained a firm footing again, once I have cleansed my psyche of the process of writing the current piece I know I am ready to enter the process of the rewrite.

I rewrite about five or six-times before I am ready to submit to an editor for evaluation. What I do is I read it out loud. I make a pot of coffee and sit down and read it out loud, I have a note book and a red pen. And I simply begin reading out loud. It’s the best way to read a work in progress. If you stumble over a sentence so will the reader, and if you groan or curse over something you wrote, you know it needs to be edited.  It’s also the best way to catch run-on sentences.

I tell everyone who listens and I will tomorrow, writing is a craft and skill like anything else. We only get better when we realize that it takes practice to be good. If you want to be a good writer, a truly good writer you write, you learn that what you said in twenty words can be better said in seven or ten. You learn that sometimes you are too close to see the flaws in your writing. 

If you want to be a good writer you listen to the editors who believe in you, their advice is not an insult to you or your writing (mostly), it because they are taking a chance on you, because they think you can sell.  When they  say rewrite it’s to make you better and their suggestions for the most part are sound and spot on.  Your editor is like a position coach in sports. They are helping you get better if you are willing to work.