8/31: The Editor Is In

[darkemeralds]

I've been asked to edit a manuscript, and after much deliberation I've decided to go ahead. The writer, who's a stranger to me, has been willing to put her (original fiction) rough draft out there with a sincere request for comment and critique, and I admire that kind of openness and courage (and enthusiasm and self-confidence). I said I'd give her a free hard edit of the first couple of pages (because I'm guessing that problems I see there represent a pattern throughout the work).

She replied very quickly. I'm not 100% sure that she actually accepted my offer of a free editorial scalpel-ing, but I'm going to go ahead.



ETA: I understand that this budding young author has spammed pretty much all of DW--including the DW Powers That Be--with her request for reviews. I'd like to think she's sincere if a little mistaken in her approach, and I wouldn't want to see her shot down for it. We were all young writers once, and, speaking for myself, not all of us had this much chutzpah.

Comments

[tehomet]

Good luck!

[darkemeralds]

Heh. Thanks. Maybe I'm volunteering for pain.

[oursin]

I'm probably deeply cynical, but I read her scattered-shot 'come and read my story!!!' message as a request for reviews, rather than for editing assistance.

[darkemeralds]

So did I. And from reports I've been hearing about the extent of her, um, promotional message, I'm convinced that that's what she was hoping for.

To her credit, however, when I replied with a frank offer to identify serious fundamental writing problems in the first few pages, she replied immediately in the--I think--affirmative. It's a hallmark of her writing that she doesn't actually say what she means, so I can't be sure.

But I'm still burning that tendency out of myself at age 57, so helping her probably helps me.

[azurelunatic]

I can accept over-enthusiasm in reaching out.

When multiple people reach back and say "this is spammy" -- the correct response is not to then delete their messages as spam.