Many, many moons ago?but still during the writing of Finders Keepers?I had wanted to bring a copy editor on board to do a tight little polish on the manuscript. The difference between an editor and a copy editor, is that, an editor reads a manuscript through, looking the big items: flow, tone, voice, storytelling, etc. In essence, the editor helps the writer break down the work, look at it?s various strengths and weaknesses, so that the writer can make revisions and bring about the best story poMany, many moons ago?but still during the writing of Finders Keepers?I had wanted to bring a copy editor on board to do a tight little polish on the manuscript. The difference between an editor and a copy editor, is that, an editor reads a manuscript through, looking the big items: flow, tone, voice, storytelling, etc. In essence, the editor helps the writer break down the work, look at it?s various strengths and weaknesses, so that the writer can make revisions and bring about the best story possible.
A copy editor is a more technical function, but an important one at that. Copy editors look for spelling and grammar. Tense. They look for punctuation and consistency. Like, if the killer was wearing black shoes on page 201, he should also be wearing black shoes on page 206. Or if the ship sinks in the Atlantic Ocean on page 36, the wreckage shouldn?t be in the Pacific Ocean on page 128. On so on and so forth.
Some of these detail checks might sound obvious, and they are when you?re staring at them clearly, but with a manuscript?with a 120,000-word manuscript, no less, such as Finders Keepers?I?ve got a lot of little places to make mistakes. In fact, I?ve got 120,000 individual places to make mistakes.
[i]One hundred and twenty thousand.[/i]
Take spell-check, for example. If I meant to write [i]he laughed his nuts off,[/i] but what I actually wrote was, [i]her laughed his nuts off[/i]?a simple mistake, adding an extra [i]r[/i] at the end of [i]he[/i]?spell-check won?t catch it, because [i]her[/i] is spelled correctly. Same thing with [i]them[/i] and [i]then[/i]. [i]The[/i] and [i]they[/i]. You get the idea.
Now that Finders Keeper is done, now that it?s written, edited, revised, reworked, switched around, cut, trimmed, tweaked, pinched, gleaned, cleaned and redeemed, it finally occurred to me that it was time to bring in a copy editor and have a final polish to check for all those little details I just mentioned. To get rid of the blemishes.
And that’s what I’ve done. This summer I enlisted copy editor extraordinaire Barney O?Neil, a copy editing wizard I used to work with back when I was editing a medical magazine. To my eyes, Barney was always more than a copy editor, he was an [i]artiste[/i], one of those rare professionals who elevated his work from mere science to art.
Barney took about two months copy editing, and I?m now about half way through his suggestions. And as expected, his work has been top-notch, pointing out all the little blemishes that needed pruning?and also noting a few leaps in logic that maybe need some tightening up.
This morning, in fact, I came to a point in the story where Barney quite accurately pointed out that I had mistaken a time sequence. I had gotten the hour wrong. Instead of writing 12:03 p.m. I had inserted 1:03 p.m.–a point I’m sure I never would have noticed had he not caught it. He also noted a sequence when I used the word [i]was[/i], when I should have written [i]would be[/i]. It’s these subtle points that can make a big difference.
Even though I?ll be at these changes for the next few weeks, I can already see just how important?and what a stroke of good decision-making?it was to bring Barney on board. So I hope you?ll join me in welcoming Barney to Team Finders Keepers. His contributions are already obvious.
And when Finders Keepers finally hits the stands, you?ll also know how important his contributions have been, because if he did his job well?and you bet your booty he did?you won?t notice anything at all.
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/09/29 13:46
Post edited by: rcolchamiro, at: 2007/10/01 18:03
