Monday, August 17, 2009

edits schmedits

I like edits. Perhaps that makes me a little strange but I have great luck with editors. The ones I work with have fantastic humor and readily display their wit when going through a manuscript. I enjoy the banter and teasing, playing with them as they play with me. So far, there has been no backlash, rather a deeper appreciation between us as craftswomen.

Writers get asked many things about the process. Some are difficult to explain and some require inside insight which, contractually, is not permissible. However, I'm a visual person. As such, I need diagrams and pictures rather like the ones I shared of my calendar. I've asked my editor for permission to share some samples and she has been amenable to such as long as it does not disclose proprietary information.

So, to show you why I like my edits, and what my edits look like, I've made screen prints and crops of the pertinent parts. These are only a few examples. I hope they are viewable.

(okay, I've wasted hours trying to get this to show up in a readable format. Instead, I'll translate. My words in pink, editor's in blue.)
1. Sage swung his head to pin Brad[C1] with his gaze[xyz2] ,

[C1] Like with his gaze, since a head can’t really pin anything?

[xyz2]Are you sure? LOL. I think that would be hysterical if a little awkward.
2. Sage was a grade A piece of ass[xyz1] .[C2]

[C2]I need me one of those!
[xyz1]Ha! Don’t you WORK with grade A sport ass? Seems like though you can’t touch, they might have friends that wouldn’t be off-limits.
3.the next time you whip out your joy-stick, it’s going to say howdy to my tonsils.[C1] [xyz2] Got it?”

[C1]Haha!

[xyz2]Some people say I’m wildly inappropriate. I don’t get it. *blink* *blink*
4. Joe’s effect was stronger than any faery magic[C1] [xyz2] .

[C1]Dangler….yikes!

[xyz2]Sigh. I LIKE things that dangle. Haven’t we had this discussion already?
5. “Not finished.” Joe ducked down, burying his face in Joe's [xyz1] balls[C2] .

[C2]Amazing! He can give himself a bj? hehe
[xyz1]LOLOLOL!!! Wow, now THAT’s a pretty impressive typo.
That last one is one of my recent favorites. All are taken from the first round edits of Mind F*cked releasing October 27th from Resplendence.

What are your edits like?

7 comments:

Kenzie Michaels said...

Mine look similar. It took me a while to figure out how to work with the tracks...I spent quite a bit of $$ printing out my editor's pages and going back through my MS. Sometimes I'd forget which version I'd been working in, which would cause poor Chuck much confusion, if one of the 'corrections' wasn't in a later version, lol:)

But finally did figure it out, and he was MUCH happier with me:)

Mia Watts said...

Learning curve. I've been there, also.

I've updated the comments on the ms by posting them in the blog so they are readable. If you want to have a laugh, come back and read.

V said...

Insightful and hilarious! Thanks Mia.

Unknown said...

I love #5. LOL

One of my editors is like yours. Makes a fun easy environment for getting edits done.

Fran Lee said...

I love that banter! Editors are loads of fun...

Claire Thompson said...

I have had some TERRIFIC editors in my day, and boy they really make the difference, don't they? They can take a reasonably good story and help turn it into something really memorable. My editor at EC, Mary Moran, was excellent with details. She would say, on page 114 of the m.s., hey, back on page two you said X and now you're saying Y. She caught it ALL. My editor at Samhain, Sasha Knight, was incredibly good at helping me become a better writer. Using my dialog better, cutting extra crap. She was/is amazing. If I go back to submitting to the epubs, I'll go to Samhain bc of Sasha. Thanks for this fun post!

Mia Watts said...

I have fantastic editors as well. I still miss Helen Woodall, but still have Michele Paulin, and Courtney Hoffman who never fail to make me laugh.

Glad you enjoyed my edits. Those were only a few I picked out.