Any advice?

Joined
Jul 17, 2013
Posts
13
Hey, guys and gals!

I love that this site affords us with editors, and I greatly appreciate those who've taken on the role voluntarily. It means a lot to me, really. It's just since I've come back from my break of writing - due to personal responsibilities - I have yet to find one again. I don't even get a reply that states if (s)he can or cannot do the editorial work. It's a bit frustrating I guess. Maybe it's because of the great experiences I have had before and I'm comparing now to then. I enjoy having others voice their critique (good or bad) while structuring my stories. It's helped me grow tremendously as a writer, and I will always give credit to those who've done this for me - past and future.

Any advice to help subside my anxiousness of finding an editor?

Thanks!
 
Merhaba! Keyfik inti?

There are some editors listed who no longer edit, but their profiles are still up. It's frustrating. I know that I have one request for editing pending and haven't yet replied -- partly because I'm busy with work, and partly because I'm not so keen on their writing.

Budding writers want to use editors to do different things. I have one writer who uses me to develop story ideas, and another for whom I do line-by-line copy editing.

It makes a big difference if the person is nice and I like their ideas and their writing. I have agreed in the past to wade through pages of badly written text, making corrections on every line, and that's not fun.

Perhaps if you write some of your ideas here, like whether you a draft ready to go, or just a few ideas knocking around, then someone will pick it up.

I've got a fairly full roster at the moment, but I'm always a sucker for new writers who are nice and have great ideas. So, feel free to PM me, if you're interested.
 
Hey, guys and gals!

I love that this site affords us with editors, and I greatly appreciate those who've taken on the role voluntarily. It means a lot to me, really. It's just since I've come back from my break of writing - due to personal responsibilities - I have yet to find one again. I don't even get a reply that states if (s)he can or cannot do the editorial work. It's a bit frustrating I guess. Maybe it's because of the great experiences I have had before and I'm comparing now to then. I enjoy having others voice their critique (good or bad) while structuring my stories. It's helped me grow tremendously as a writer, and I will always give credit to those who've done this for me - past and future.

Any advice to help subside my anxiousness of finding an editor?

Thanks!

My advice would be to learn to edit your own work, know when enough is done, but it's always good to have trusted pre-readers to fall back on for post revision draft critiques. Nothing wrong with hiring an editor, lots do that, but as someone who struggled with being my own editor early on, master that first.
 
My advice would be to learn to edit your own work, know when enough is done, but it's always good to have trusted pre-readers to fall back on for post revision draft critiques. Nothing wrong with hiring an editor, lots do that, but as someone who struggled with being my own editor early on, master that first.
Thank you! I will certainly take your advice.
 
Merhaba! Keyfik inti?

There are some editors listed who no longer edit, but their profiles are still up. It's frustrating. I know that I have one request for editing pending and haven't yet replied -- partly because I'm busy with work, and partly because I'm not so keen on their writing.

Budding writers want to use editors to do different things. I have one writer who uses me to develop story ideas, and another for whom I do line-by-line copy editing.

It makes a big difference if the person is nice and I like their ideas and their writing. I have agreed in the past to wade through pages of badly written text, making corrections on every line, and that's not fun.

Perhaps if you write some of your ideas here, like whether you a draft ready to go, or just a few ideas knocking around, then someone will pick it up.

I've got a fairly full roster at the moment, but I'm always a sucker for new writers who are nice and have great ideas. So, feel free to PM me, if you're interested.
I see you speak Arabic! Ena mab sutta (I am well). I will certainly pm you and let you know about another story I want to finish!
 
My advice would be to learn to edit your own work, know when enough is done, but it's always good to have trusted pre-readers to fall back on for post revision draft critiques. Nothing wrong with hiring an editor, lots do that, but as someone who struggled with being my own editor early on, master that first.
^^^^ Yup. This.
After trying and failing to find an editor, then coming close to finding an editor another time, I discovered a few important things...

  • Almost finding an editor caused me to proofread my own work much more carefully as a point of pride, which was good.
  • Because finding an editor didn't actually happen.
I think fortunate (or perhaps nicer than me? :rolleyes:) people certainly do find editors. At the same time, I think it's still a relatively rare alignment of the planets when a writer finds a compatible editor and all works out. Not quite as rare as finding that solo woman who wants a threesome with a couple... :D. But rare nonetheless, in my opinion a lot more rare than all the various "find an editor" posts, methods, and threads imply.

So proofread more carefully. Read backwards. And my favorite: Paste into simple old Notepad (an Outlook compose window works similarly) and proofread. Then drag the corner and resize the window narrower, or wider, enough to change where word-wrapping occurs. The change in appearance gives you a whole new perspective, and it helps you find things you skimmed over before. Repeat repeatedly.
 
I see you speak Arabic! Ena mab sutta (I am well). I will certainly pm you and let you know about another story I want to finish!

My Arabic is really bad, as I learnt it while serving with the French army in Djibouti, so it's mostly swear words! My handle 'gorza' is how we described a legionnaire being naughty in town; apparently it comes from the MSA جرسة jurseh via Egyptian Arabic.

Please do PM me your story ideas, as I always look forward to editing fresh ideas.

It is always good to say what kind of story you're writing, perhaps by category and/or brief description, what state it's in (from haven't written anything yet to full draft), and what kind of editor you're looking for (ideas/literary, copy, beta-reader).
 
Since being on Literotica I have seen so many authors who are prolific but whose spelling and grammar are atrocious. Spellcheck does not tell the author if the word they used is the correct word, but rather if the word they used is spelled correctly. I suggest keeping an old-fashion dictionary at hand not to check the spelling but to make sure the definition matches the word the author used. An example was an author who used the word "waste" when they meant "waist." I also use the dictionary to check to see if a word is two separate words, a compound or hyphenated word.
 
jsmiam said:
And my favorite: Paste into simple old Notepad (an Outlook compose window works similarly) and proofread. Then drag the corner and resize the window narrower, or wider, enough to change where word-wrapping occurs. The change in appearance gives you a whole new perspective, and it helps you find things you skimmed over before. Repeat repeatedly.

This is one of my tried and true methods, too. That, or just changing the font to something very different from my normal font. It helps the brain read what you actually wrote, rather than what you think you wrote.
 
Back
Top