Sassy writer looking for a talented editor

looking for an editor

PM me if you are available and interested in a romance story. You might want to have a quick look at my last piece to consider if we are compatible. Thanks.

Donna, I can help. I also write romance. (not exclusively). If you want me to work with you, PM me and I will send you my e-mail. (If you want a sample of my writing, see: "Come Sail Away With Me"), but remember, I do not have an editor, so you may see errors. Editing one's own work is not acceptable, but sometimes necessary.

robertreams said:

Donna, I can help. I also write romance. (not exclusively). If you want me to work with you, PM me and I will send you my e-mail. (If you want a sample of my writing, see: "Come Sail Away With Me"), but remember, I do not have an editor, so you may see errors. Editing one's own work is not acceptable, but sometimes necessary.

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Where does it say editing your own work isn't acceptable?

_Lynn_ said:

Where does it say editing your own work isn't acceptable?

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I suspect he meant to say optimal, or something similar. The post might have benefitted from a quick check for errors.

Then again, it does provide a good example of an instance where a nominally unacceptable practice is indeed necessary...

_Lynn_ said:

Where does it say editing your own work isn't acceptable?

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I am sorry I meant for me, being the only editor of my own work is not acceptable. I think it is true of others, but will not speak for all. I find when I try to edit my own work, I get sidetracked working on description, character development, plot, etc, and always end up missing the minor word spellings and things like that. In fact I have had to be satisfied with editing my own work on most of my submitted stories, because I can't find volunteers enough, but I don't like it. In the old days I had a part time job in the accounting department. The boss there told me after the first few times, that if I got stuck, have someone else look at my work because it was easy to keep making the same mistakes. I find editing can be like that too. I think most would say it is helpful at the very least to have someone else go over one's work.

Editing your own work isn't sufficient (and I call it self-review, not self-edit). You invariably will see a lot of what you thought you keyed to the file but didn't actually key to the file that way. If you can put it aside long enough to get "what you meant" out of your brain before reviewing it again, you'll catch problems. But you won't catch everything. There's a category of personal mistakes that you wouldn't have made to begin with if you're going to be able to catch them in just your own personal self-review.

And I don't think that just me--I think that's everyone (and maybe especially those who believe they are perfect).

I edit my own work, and I don't have any problems finding my spelling mistakes and typos. I do believe editors are helpful, when you can find one. I gave up looking a long time ago.

Trip_Dalton said:

I edit my own work, and I don't have any problems finding my spelling mistakes and typos. I do believe editors are helpful, when you can find one. I gave up looking a long time ago.

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Finding someone can be difficult. Finding someone who understands your writing style can be even more difficult. I've worked with several people over the years. Some missed such blatant errors I cringed (I put them in as a test to see how good they were). Others added material that changed the flow of the story. After a while, I gave up looking, too.

I remember a comment I received quite a few years ago. Someone pointed out a typo. They didn't say anything about the story . . . just that one error. If that was all they found, I'm good without that second set of eyes.

Trip_Dalton said:

I edit my own work, and I don't have any problems finding my spelling mistakes and typos. I do believe editors are helpful, when you can find one. I gave up looking a long time ago.

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It would be an interesting exercise (and, I'm betting, an eye-opening one for you) for an editor to go over something you wrote and considered edit sufficiently when you were finished with it. Did I mention probably eye-opening to you?