After all, editing is expensive. It takes a long time. What is your editor doing during those weeks or months with your manuscript? What are they doing to earn that high fee? I promise you, editing isn’t sitting around reading books all day. It’s also not making our pens proverbially bleed onto the page as we gleefully correct errors. Editing is a complicated and often frustrating process. Here’s a little of what it looks like.

What Does Professional Editing Look Like?

Since I’m a copy editor, I’ll take you through what a copy edit looks like for me with the average manuscript.

Receive the Manuscript

The first step is receiving the manuscript. I will perform a basic cleanup on the text, formatting it properly (if it isn’t already) and performing basic functions such as replacing any double spaces between sentences with single spaces. All of this happens before the track changes go on because there’s no need for the author to see those changes (and they can be numerous).

Read Through the Manuscript

Next, I’ll read through the manuscript from beginning to end to get an idea of the contents and the author’s voice and intentions. If the edit is a tight turnaround, I may only read the first section of the book before diving into editing fully.

Track Changes Go On

Now, track changes go on, and the editing begins. Editors look for many things at this stage, and the order in which they search for each item could be different for each author and editor. For a copy edit, I’m looking at grammar such as unnecessary passive voice or consistent capitalization; I’m looking for flow such as too many repeated sentence starts; I’m looking for punctuation, including both the correctness and the impact of each mark.

Make Additional Passes

Depending on how “clean” the manuscript already is, I may complete anywhere from two to five passes on it, looking for different things each time. How many passes a manuscript gets also depends on the timeline or quote from the editor. The less time for the edit, the fewer passes I’m going to be able to fit in. Some editors will name a specific number of passes in their contracts.

Manuscript Goes Back to the Author

Once the manuscript is handed back to the author, they have a chance to read through it and make any final changes or change anything back they disagree with. You don’t need to and shouldn’t hit accept all. I usually lock the track changes on during this stage, so you can’t do that.

Final Pass & Cleanup

When you’re done making changes, then it comes back to me, and I do a final scan of the manuscript. In particular, I’m paying attention to any edits I see you’ve made to be sure any basic errors haven’t been introduced. I then “accept all” on the manuscript and send the tracked changes and clean copies to the author.

What Does it Take to Be an Editor?

In addition to how I edit, I’d like to cover what it takes to complete the above steps. Editors have different traits that make them adept at different types of editing. But most editors will have these basic skills.

Decision Making

Editing is a lot of decision-making. Yes, a lot of decisions are made for us by style guides and grammar rules. But there are a LOT of exceptions to English writing “rules,” and editors are tasked with finding the right answer to a question with no certain conclusion. Therefore, a lot of editing comes down to style. Editors are constantly trying to balance what is correct with what is the author’s voice.

Detail Retention

Did the apartment switch from the second to the third floor in two different chapters? Did you capitalize a made-up term somewhere but have it lowercase in other places? These sorts of details need to ring bells in an editor’s mind so they can create consistency in the work.

Empathy

Editors need to understand their authors. They need to understand what the author’s intentions are behind the words and their meaning and how they are trying to get it across. We must put ourselves in the author’s shoes and think like them to do our best editing without removing what makes the writing special.

A Keen Eye

Great editors can spot even the smallest details, like a wrongly italicized comma. We need to be detail oriented to find what needs fixing. A lot of editing is looking at a word or construction and telling ourselves, “I better look this up.”

Patience 

Editors need to be patient with authors, for sure, but also patient with the work. Editing shouldn’t be rushed. When I work on a manuscript, I work six or seven days a week, but I only edit up to four hours each day. This is about how long we can do Deep Work.

Resilience

Editors need to have a thick skin. Sure, most people think it’s the authors who need to steel themselves up against our edits, but it’s really editors who need to be resilient to feedback on our edits. After all, we’ve invested into your manuscript, it can be devastating to hear an author changed back most of the edits. But it happens. Editors need to be resilient to it.

Some editors refer to themselves as gardeners, helping manuscripts grow into full books. Other editors see themselves as miners, digging the true message from your words. Overall, editing is a long and complicated process. (And we haven’t even covered developmental editing, line editing, or proofreading.) But rest assured, your high-charging editor is doing much more than just adding a few commas or making a few comments. 

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post What Does an Editor Actually Do? appeared first on DIY MFA.

1. You managed to write all of this!

If you haven’t already, I want you to stop reading this immediately and go celebrate that you finished a project and are moving on to editing. That is a HUGE accomplishment! 

All those words (good and bad), those came from you. You poured your heart onto the page and that took guts and dedication. 

Always keep in mind that you birthed that manuscript or story into the world all on your own. That is powerful.

2. No one’s first draft is good

There may be moments of greatness in your first draft, of course. But no writer, even professionals we idolize, gets everything perfect on the first try. 

It’s a hard pill to swallow when we look back on our writing and admit it isn’t very good—yet. 

But that’s the key. It’s only a first draft. No one expects it to be remotely good, let alone perfect. Don’t beat yourself up about it. That’s what the editing process is there for.

3. Editing is the fun part

In this humble editor’s opinion, the editing process is where the fun of writing really begins. 

During the writing phase, your mind was throwing out anything it could find at the moment to make your point. 

Now is the time to take all that word-clay and start digging in, molding and shaping it into the artwork you imagined. After all, is there anything better than that feeling when a sentence you revised is so good it gives you goosebumps?

4. Editing is NOT a never-ending process

The writing process has a clear demarcation when it comes to an end. All stories, whether short or novel-length, have a conclusion of some sort. 

But the editing process… it’s not so clear when it ends. 

Yes, you could go on forever making a little tweak here and a small wording change there, but you will need to one day call it quits. Setting a goal and having a specific series of edits in mind can help you draw that line in the sand. 

5. All great writers had an editor

With the rise of self-publishing, I can no longer say that every book published has been through the hands of at least one editor. 

But I’ll bet any writer worth their salt can point out exactly which books had an editor and which didn’t. The Amazon and New York Times bestsellers? They definitely had editors! 

Don’t think you have to or even should go through the editing process alone. Editors are your friends and they serve an important purpose.

Tell us in the comments: What do you keep in mind during the editing process?

Jeanette the Writer is a freelance editor and writer based in Dallas, TX. When not at her computer, you can find her crafting, scuba diving, or posting pictures of her cats on Instagram. Visit JeanettetheWriter.com for more info and follow @JeanettetheWriter on Instagram and Facebook.

The post #5onFri: Five Things to Keep in Mind During the Editing Process appeared first on DIY MFA.

Even these days, where most conferences are being held online, you can gain a lot from the experience. But still, all good things must come to an end. When the last class has ended, the closing ceremony has inspired, and you pass out the last good-byes, then it’s back to the real world.

Enter the real world.

Time to get back to work. Only sometimes getting back to work after a writers conference is difficult or even impossible. Why? You learned so many new skills, you have so many new exercises to try on your WIP, you’re so inspired by the successes of the people you’ve met. But you can’t write.

Having all of this new awareness leads to over-thinking, to over-criticizing. Yes, you have notes on a new skill or ten, but you haven’t practiced them, haven’t internalized them. You haven’t made them your own. You look at this cool new skill and you go to use it—and you don’t know how. Yes, logically you know (you have notes!), but your writer’s intuition needs practice first.

You are not alone.

Believe it or not, this is a common occurrence. Basically, a writers conference increases your awareness of writing and the writing world very abruptly. Suddenly you have pages of notes of new skills, new goals, new aspirations. You’re aware of things you could be doing (or even ‘should’ be doing) with regards to your writing. And your writer’s intuition hasn’t had time to catch up.

For example, just because someone explains their own winning strategies for chess does not mean you simply go out and start winning games. It doesn’t even mean you would suddenly play better games. You would need to play many games of chess, and even do poorly, so you can improve your ‘chess intuition’. It’s the same thing with writing.

So what should you do?

First off, understand that you did not get worse at writing. Let me pause and say this again: you did not get worse at writing. You’re at the exact same level you were before the conference. It’s the sudden increase of awareness that makes you think you’ve gotten worse. The good news is that you now have the opportunity to grow into that new awareness. Since you’re aware of places you’re lacking, then you go to work training yourself. Try the exercises, poke at the skills, play with the advice, and forgive yourself for a lack of perfection.

And as you thank about what you learned from the writers conference, find the bits that work for you and throw away the rest. Don’t try and internalize everything. You are at the perfect point in your writing journey, and you can expand your writer’s intuition, but that doesn’t mean you need to (or should) take everything. Some of it will not work for your style, and some of it is not what you need to work on at this time. And that is perfectly alright.

What you want to do is go back to writing the way you always do, and work on incorporating the new skills where you can. You’ll make mistakes, and your writing might make you cringe. But remember: this is normal, you will get past it, and you will be a better writer for it. Growth and learning do not happen when things are beautiful and easy. You will get to a place where you are again happy with your writing. And then it will be time to go to another writers conference and the process will start all over again.

Laura Highcove has a degree in computer science, which is obviously why she is a fantasy writer. She is influenced by anime, video games, table-top gaming, programming, horses, and Norse mythology in no particular order. She currently lives in beautiful Blacksburg, Virginia with her computer, two cats, and husband. Her psychic abilities have not yet developed, but she remains hopeful. If you’d like to learn more about her, head over to her website and sign up for her newsletter (and get a free short story) here.

The post Why Does it Feel Like You Can’t Write After a Writers Conference? appeared first on DIY MFA.

Self-Editing

Believe me, editors are thrilled when writers realize that they need professional editing. But finishing your first draft does not mean it’s time to start looking for an editor. Every writer needs some level of self-editing before submitting their work. Copious errors distract editors from getting to the heart of your writing and some editors may charge more when they see how much work is needed. A clean manuscript will ensure you’re getting the biggest bang for your buck and the best edits possible.

Editor/Writer Relationship

Not every editor and writer were meant to work together. It’s important to research and reach out to several editors to find the right fit. Look for people knowledgeable in your genre and be sure that person can meet your timeline and budget. Clear and honest communication before, during, and after is critical to working well with your chosen editor. 

Length of the Editing Process

The editing process has multiple steps and each step requires multiple pass-throughs of your manuscript. It may take several months to receive your edits back, and the entire editing process can last over a year (or even several). That’s not to say you’ll be old and grey before your manuscript is polished. But the editing process can’t be rushed. Be patient. We’ll get there.

Feedback from Editors

We editors are not here to crush your dreams or overwrite your voice. We are here to make your writing the best it can possibly be. Will that require critical feedback? Certainly. But every suggested edit is intended to lead you to a better story. We want to see you succeed. Always keep this in mind when receiving editor feedback. 

Post-Edit Review

Editors are not here to simply change your work for you and that’s the end of it. Edits are suggestions and the changes are tracked throughout the document so you can easily see what was modified. It is the writer’s responsibility to go through the manuscript post-editing and either accept or reject the changes. If you’re unsure how to do this, ask your editor for a quick tutorial.

Editing Investment

Professional editors work hard to help make your writing shine and they should be paid fairly for their work. Editing is an investment. If you’re looking for bargain-basement pricing, you’ll end up with low-quality editing to match. When you invest in quality editing, you have a much higher chance of seeing a return.

How to “Ask the Editor”

Have a burning question for the editor? Just ask!

Jeanette is always accepting questions for our Ask the Editor column. Send a few paragraphs introducing yourself and your question to Jeanette@DIYMFA.com. You can also send up to five pages of your WIP for critique. We do our best to answer every question we receive, so keep an eye out for our next Ask the Editor article. Your question may be featured!

Jeanette the Writer is an editor, coach, and freelance writer who wants to help others demolish their editing fears and finish their manuscript. As a former scuba instructor turned entrepreneur, Jeanette knows about putting in the hard work to pursue your passions. She has worked with authors, speakers, coaches, and entrepreneurs—empowering them with the right mindset, knowledge, and tools to help them tackle their editing goals. You can learn more about Jeanette by visiting JeanetteTheWriter.com.

The post Six Things Editors Want Writers to Know appeared first on DIY MFA.

Today I have the pleasure of hosting Adam Cayton-Holland on the show!

Adam is an author and national touring comic who has appeared on shows including Conan, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, and Happy Endings just to name a few. He has also been named one of Esquire’s “25 Comics to Watch” and Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch.”

Adam has been described as “genial” and “with pretty decent teeth”, and co-created, writes, and stars in truTV’s show Those Who Can’t along with his fellow members of the comedy troupe, The Grawlix. His writing has appeared in places such as Spin and The Atlantic as well.

Adam is also the author of the new heart-wrenchingly gorgeous memoir Tragedy Plus Time.

Listen in as we chat about this amazing book and how to tackle a tragic event with humor on the page.

In this episode Adam and I discuss:

• The art of weaving someone else’s life along with yours in a memoir.
• How to create moments that feel real on the page and get readers to respond.
• The broader impact of memoir, and how to navigate that responsibility.
• Knowing what to cut out and what to fight for in revision.
• How to choose the right structure for your memoir.

Plus, Adam’s #1 tip for writers.

About Adam Cayton-Holland

Adam Cayton-Holland is a national touring comic who has appeared on Conan, @midnight, The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, Happy Endings, Deadbeat, Flophouse, Hidden America with Jonah Ray, and was named one of Esquire’s “25 Comics to Watch” and Variety’s “10 Comics to Watch.” Adam co-created, writes, and stars in truTV’s Those Who Can’t along with his fellow members of the comedy troupe, The Grawlix. His albums I Don’t Know If I Happy and Backyards are available on iTunes, and his writing has appeared in Village Voice, Spin, The A.V. Club, and The Atlantic. Adam has been described as “genial” and “with pretty decent teeth.” He is the author of the memoir Tragedy Plus Time, which is available now.

To connect with Adam check out his website at adamcaytonholland.com.

Tragedy Plus Time: A Tragi-Comic Memoir

Adam Cayton-Holland went from a painfully sensitive kid growing up in Denver, Colorado, to a writer and performer with a burgeoning career in comedy. His father, a civil rights lawyer, and his mother, an investigative journalist, taught Adam and his two sisters to feel the pain of the world deeply and to combat it through any means necessary. Adam chose to meet life’s tough breaks and cruel realities with stand-up comedy; his older sister pursued law like their father; their youngest sister, Lydia, perhaps the most brilliant and talented of the “Magnificent Cayton-Hollands”, struggled with mental illness and ultimately took her own life.

Adam and Lydia (“Lee”) grew up cracking jokes and running bits off one another, developing a similar, shared sense of humor. Their close bond continued through young adulthood as Lydia worked both at the door and behind the scenes giving incisive notes on Adam’s increasingly popular comedy shows. The devastating tragedy of Lydia’s suicide strikes the Cayton-Holland household at the same moment Adam’s career is finally taking off. Yet success is hollow as Adam falls deeper and deeper into his grief, reliving the trauma of Lydia’s death until he seeks help through Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy.

Both a moving tribute to a lost sibling and an inspiring meditation on mental illness, grief, and recovery, TRAGEDY PLUS TIME is an unsentimental, unexpectedly funny, and incredibly honest love letter to every family that has ever felt messy, complicated, or (even momentarily) magnificent. In the tradition of A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and Truth & Beauty, this memoir offers a tender look at the bonds that hold a family together and the difficult truth that you can’t always save the person you love.

.

If you decide to check out the book, we hope you’ll do so via this Amazon affiliate link, where if you choose to purchase via the link DIY MFA gets a referral fee at no cost to you. As always, thank you for supporting DIY MFA!

Link to Episode 214

(Right-click to download.)

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, Stitcher Radio or Google Play and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available.

Also, remember that sharing is caring so if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please tell them about it or leave us a review so other listeners will want to check it out.

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 214: Dealing with Darkness through Comedy — Interview with Adam Cayton-Holland appeared first on DIY MFA.

However, while pitching can be an incredibly rewarding experience, it does have a few pit-falls. Most of them can be avoided by being prepared, polite and simply following the guidelines posted on the conference website. In the past few years, because I work as an editor and write on the side, I’ve been on both sides of the pitching table. Today, I’d like to talk about some typical rules for pitching, and the reasons behind them. If I miss any, leave a comment, and I’m happy to talk through them!

Only Pitch One Project at a Time

It can be tempting, when you’ve only got ten minutes with one person, to give them all you’ve got. Show them all your books, because they might like one better than the others. But it’s really difficult to pitch more than one book well in the time that’s allotted at most pitch sessions. What ends up happening is a writer spends all time talking about his or her projects, and there’s no time for questions, or feedback.

An agent or editor is only going to be able to sell or buy one project at a time (even when books are bought as part of a multiple book contract, it’s usually based on the first book). Having a strong, single pitch shows that you know how to follow the rules, are confident in your work, and are eager to interact with the agent or editor. One of the great benefits of pitch sessions is the time, after you pitch, to just talk and ask questions. Taking too long to pitch, or pitching multiple projects, cuts into that!

Don’t Bring Pages

It doesn’t seem like that big of a deal: a few pages are not that bulky, and they don’t take up that much space. But here’s the thing: an editor or agent isn’t just going to tuck said pages into a suitcase. She will have to carry them around all day. Make sure coffee doesn’t get spilled on them. Remember which author they belong to. The reality is, most agents and editors aren’t going to do that. They’re going to throw them away.

At one of my first pitch sessions as an editor, a writer gave me the first one hundred pages of a manuscript, neatly and professionally bound. For me, working as an editor is a constant battle against guilt. I think this is probably true of most editors and agents. We don’t enjoy rejecting things. It’s the worst part of the job. But it’s something we have to do. At the time, I couldn’t bear to do it without at least reading the pages. But I didn’t have a purse big enough to hold them, and I didn’t have time to run up to my hotel room to drop them off. So, I carried those pages around with me for the entire day, growing grumpier and grumpier. To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t do that again. I’d give the writer my card and ask them to email me, same as everyone else. Printing pages is really just a waste of time and money, and it gives an editor or agent the impression that a writer doesn’t respect the rules or them.

Read Up on an Editor or Agent’s List

I work at a company that is known for science fiction and fantasy, but acquire historical fiction and contemporaries. Writers pitch me awesome sounding epic fantasies that might be wonderful, but are totally wrong for my own list. While I’m always perfectly happy to look at pages and pass them on to a coworker who might enjoy them, or to help a writer hone a pitch, I’m not going to be the most productive use of that writer’s time. Also, in taking up one of my slots, a writer is taking the space of another writer who might have the sort of book I acquire. It’s really in everyone’s best interest to sign up for editors and agents who want the type of book you’re going to pitch. So always be sure to read the bios included in the conference materials. It’s why we write them!I

Another great resource is to check out agents and editor’s #MSWL pages, or search their tweets and interviews. It takes a little extra time, but it shows initiative, resourcefulness and respect for our time. And hey! You may discover that your book is absolutely perfect for someone.

The post Pitch Perfectly by Following a Few Rules appeared first on DIY MFA.

After several days of chaos and anxiety–worrying about and tracking down friends, family and colleagues–I finally ventured out into New York City to attend the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar. By some miracle, the hotel hosting the conference still had power (the blackout area started just a few blocks south). Despite many agents and attendees being unable to make it because of the storm, the conference was going forward.

Even though attendance was small, this was perhaps the most inspiring conference I have ever been to, and at this point in my career I’ve been to many. I’ve seen writers and industry professionals rally and pull together at these events before, but nothing compares to last week.

There’s been a lot of talk recently about how the end of publishing is nigh. Bookpocalypse, I call it. Will mergers make it impossible for writers to get book deals? Will the rise of self-publishing make agents and publishers obsolete? Will eBooks kill paper books? Will people stop reading forever? It feels like everyone in the book world is up in arms because publishing-as-we-know-it is on the brink of destruction.

Guess what: it’s not. At the Backspace Agent-Author Seminar, I saw evidence of this first-hand.

The publishing industry might be a business, but like any business it’s made up of people. As long as as these people work together and help each other, this industry will continue strong. I have a lot of hope for the book world, not because of the business itself but because of the people. And book people have a lot of heart.

Last week I saw agents who weren’t scheduled for sessions jump in and cover for others those who couldn’t make the conference. I saw writers encourage and support one another–no competitive attitudes there–and I saw them roll with the punches when things didn’t go as expected. I met industry professionals who biked in from areas of the city without power, writers from other continents who traveled for days to get there, and conference organizers who left home and family behind to run the event because they refused let people down.

We’ve heard many incredible stories surrounding the storm, and in no way do I mean to downplay the heroism of the first responders and volunteers who have helped so many get through this difficult week. But it’s easy to overlook the small acts of heroism, the moments of humanity and those everyday kindnesses that may not make a difference on a large scale but will mean the world to one person.

We hear about how publishing is full of rejection and disappointment, but this conference only reaffirmed why I love this industry and why I love my job. Events like this conference make me proud to be part of the book world and I am honored to have book people as colleagues and friends.

Writers, readers, agents and publishers: this week you are my heroes.

The post The Human Side of the Publishing Industry appeared first on DIY MFA.