Yesterday I finished the initial edit of Sandee Watkins' The Back-Up. There are a few things left to clean up after she finishes her review of MY review...but I'm pretty satisfied with how it all went. The day job has been a bear the past few weeks, so it took longer than I'd initially thought. Securities fraud waits for no man, I suppose.
I (honestly) felt a bit out of my element with Sandee's book. Not the nuts-and-bolts editing part, but with the genre itself. I'm not sure that I've ever even read a romance novel, so it was something new and different. This is what this journey is all about, though - exposing oneself to the vast possibilities of everyone who welcomes you to share their story. I saw the love and care that went into it, and that is what matters, in the end. It's very apparent in The Back-Up that Sandee loved this story and the characters that she created so carefully.
In reading and re-reading Sandee's book, I understood something that should have been clear from the outset about myself. I must acknowledge that sometimes the "correct" grammar or language usage is not true to the voice of the character. It's hard for me, I admit it, to not want to correct it. I think: that is not how people actually talk!....but from the author's standpoint, it is the voice they hear in their head, the words that come out of the character's mouths as they create. However, that still doesn't mean that the spelling of said vernacular can't do with some polishing. I suppose that the instinct to make it right is something that most people look for in an editor, no? It's just a personal thing, a preference that I have. But that's not my mission - my mission is to take the words and order them, make them make sense on the page and within the general "rules" of grammar. Make the it work for the words I've been given, not to reinvent the voice of the characters completely! That's the entire point, really.
I am grateful to Sandee for her patience and her persistence (authors are a very persistent lot, as a whole...) through the initial process. Links to the finished product after views and reviews forthcoming!
In new news, I have another project to sink my teeth into. Ren, aforementioned author of Reaper's Flight, has introduced me to an author friend of his named Peter Smalley. Peter has, in turn, entrusted me with editing his book, Grimme. I am so grateful for the opportunity. Social networking at it's finest, that's what this is.
So, my fine feathered friends, I have another day of fraud to conquer and another book to edit.
I (honestly) felt a bit out of my element with Sandee's book. Not the nuts-and-bolts editing part, but with the genre itself. I'm not sure that I've ever even read a romance novel, so it was something new and different. This is what this journey is all about, though - exposing oneself to the vast possibilities of everyone who welcomes you to share their story. I saw the love and care that went into it, and that is what matters, in the end. It's very apparent in The Back-Up that Sandee loved this story and the characters that she created so carefully.
In reading and re-reading Sandee's book, I understood something that should have been clear from the outset about myself. I must acknowledge that sometimes the "correct" grammar or language usage is not true to the voice of the character. It's hard for me, I admit it, to not want to correct it. I think: that is not how people actually talk!....but from the author's standpoint, it is the voice they hear in their head, the words that come out of the character's mouths as they create. However, that still doesn't mean that the spelling of said vernacular can't do with some polishing. I suppose that the instinct to make it right is something that most people look for in an editor, no? It's just a personal thing, a preference that I have. But that's not my mission - my mission is to take the words and order them, make them make sense on the page and within the general "rules" of grammar. Make the it work for the words I've been given, not to reinvent the voice of the characters completely! That's the entire point, really.
I am grateful to Sandee for her patience and her persistence (authors are a very persistent lot, as a whole...) through the initial process. Links to the finished product after views and reviews forthcoming!
In new news, I have another project to sink my teeth into. Ren, aforementioned author of Reaper's Flight, has introduced me to an author friend of his named Peter Smalley. Peter has, in turn, entrusted me with editing his book, Grimme. I am so grateful for the opportunity. Social networking at it's finest, that's what this is.
So, my fine feathered friends, I have another day of fraud to conquer and another book to edit.
