EDITORS and English grammar

EDITORS and English grammar

I have written a few short stories that have been published under another name, and I enjoy the royalties. They are not enough to make me throw everything down and take a world cruise, but they do help make life a little more comfortable. I have a very good editor that I get along with and trust to get things done. Due to his other commitments I send the longer stories away to be edited by another. It is here that the problem arises, [conflict if ideas].

As I told you in my earlier post, I have limited English grammar skills. This problem to any editor worth the money should not be a problem. I had a story edited which I paid good money to have done. On receiving the manuscript back there were one hell of a lot of changes. I expected a certain amount of changes because that is what editors do. The manuscript also returned with the loss of fifteen-hundred words.

What I never expected was the amount of red line through certain paragraphs and sentences. In place of all my writing was left just a few words that caused me a little anxiety at the time. I didn’t have to use what was in red as it was suggested words and sentences. This is where I had major problems in trying to work out which way to go. I could either go with the words in red belonging to the editor, or I could use my own words that sounded better but grammatically could be wrong.

TOWER BRIDGE

David illif

I chose right or wrong to go with the editor and yes it all fitted neatly together. It was not until I had read the whole story from beginning to end that I found out little segments that held the story together were missing. The editor had edited the book without reading the story first. This meant that where parts had been edited out, I now had to go back and replace with what I thought was grammatically okay.

During the time before I changed a lot of my work, I was not very happy with the editor. After I had read the story through once more I had even more reservations about the work. He/she had used a lot of words that a person using forethought would use, and not a person that was living on the edge of death and danger. It annoyed me that this person was getting paid money that I could not really afford, and he/she had let me down so bad. Yes the story was now grammatically correct even if the story was now 25% written by the editor. I was feeling let down and started to question my own ability.

Over the next few months I read the edited story many times and always felt uncomfortable with the finished product. In the end I had to put it to the test with someone that would give me a real insight to what I already knew. I sent it to my own editor not for publication, but for him to read and give an appraisal and me a first class critique.

BUCKINGHAM PALACE

I was not disappointed because after a few weeks he had found time to read it. Yes there was a lot wrong with the story, but not grammatically. He picked out sentences and replaced words that while in the Special Forces I never used. They were never used by the officers. He pulled paragraphs apart, and with the same words almost he had written another paragraph supplementing some of my short words for ones I would never use. The story would have been then 25% his.

Yes, I was losing my story, in fact 50% to two editors. It was at this point I e mailed him back saying, “You used a lot of words that I would never use. You have changed the paragraph but not the content by using your words. The story is no longer my story but yours because it would now be written the way you read.”

His reply was fast, and he agreed that there was a fine edge between what the editor changes and what belongs to the writer. I was told by another editor that stories are edited to a format that good old Joe/Jane public is used to reading. I think that is a lot of bull giving the editor the legal right to put his mark into a story.

St PAULS

I cannot believe that Joe/Jane public would like everyone to write their stories with the same format. [We are not living in the matrix.] What right has an editor got that gives him the impression that he knows what I am thinking? What right has any editor got to choose the words that he thinks are softer to the eye, when/if Joe/Jane public reads a story? What is the point of writing a story that to you is a manuscript of great beauty in your own words and style. Then after it is finished the editor carves it up to place long words that only the grammatically correct minority use?

On my short stories I trust my editor to do the correct thing, and he has never let me down. By my being unable to write in the grammatically correct way is ending up being a disability. I am giving away a free story on this blog with people reading it every day which makes me ask the question. “If no one has complained after reading my unedited manuscript, does this mean they are enjoying the story? The bigger question is, if these people are enjoying the story, does this mean that my English grammar is not as bad as the editors make out?” It’s more food for thought.

Be well Ian.