My editing philosophy

My editing philosophy

My approach to working with editing clients is based on several beliefs I hold about the writing process and the best way for an editor and a writer to work together.

• The right information at the right time. Although not all writers’ processes look the same, there is a definite order of operations, and certain types of feedback belong in certain stages of the writing project. I give you the right information at the right time, which helps you focus on the right level of revision and prevents overwhelm.
• We are partners in the work. I am an articulate and honest outside perspective, a partner in your thinking and your process. I tell you what I see—what’s working and not working—and help you brainstorm solutions and a revision plan that will achieve your vision for the project and create a satisfying experience for readers.
• Mutual respect is key to a productive writer-editor relationship. I respect your time, money, process, and autonomy. This is why I offer high-quality services at fair rates and support your vision for your work rather than trying to superimpose my own.
• The right amount of challenge and support. It's my job to nudge you in the direction of better writing and storytelling. That said, whether you want to query, submit to contests, or self-publish, at some point you have to have to decide that it’s good enough. I help you determine where that point lies and support you in making your project the best it can be given the available resources.

What to expect

When you contact me, I'll start by asking you some basic questions about your project. You may not know all the answers right away, and that's okay; part of the purpose of the conversation is to give you information that can help you make those decisions. After I understand your needs, we'll work together to create an editing agreement that includes cost, turnaround time, and editing dates that fit the needs of the writing as well as your timeline and budget. Once we have a signed agreement, your editing dates are locked in and we can get to work.

Ready to start talking about your editing needs? Email me at sioneaeschliman (at) gmail (dot) com. I look forward to speaking with you soon!

ROW80 2014 Round 1 Goals

The first round in 2014 of A Round of Words in 80 Days (ROW80) starts tomorrow! Hooray! 

Some of you may know that I've been participating in ROW80 for a solid year now, and I honestly think that I wouldn't have accomplished as much as I have if I hadn't been participating. There's something important about not only setting goals but also checking back in with myself on a regular - in this case, weekly - basis to acknowledge what I've accomplished. Or just remind myself I had stuff I meant to do.

As I've read my fellow ROW80 participants' check-ins over the last year, my ideas about what goals to include have expanded beyond projects related to my identity as a writer. This round I've added health and reading goals. Other goals have carried over from previous rounds.

ROW80 2014 Round 1 Goals

Happy New Year! (and stuff)

Happy New Year from Sione & Milton

It's the year 2014, and if you add up the numbers (2+0+1+4) they equal seven, and someone once told me that's good luck, so I guess we'd all better prepare for a lucky year this year.

Some people like to set New Year's resolutions. Not me. My New Year's resolution several years ago was to never make another resolution again because I never stick to them, and I've stuck to it ever since. Oh. Wait. Hmm...

Well anyway, instead of making New Year's resolutions I like to have goals. What's the difference? you ask. A resolution is a commitment to doing a certain thing, e.g. Go to the gym 3x a week or Stop swearing in front of the kids, whereas a goal sets an intention in a general direction and is subject to change as my needs/perception of reality changes. Yes, perhaps it is splitting hairs, but it makes me feel better.

My goals this year, in approximate order in which I hope to achieve them:

Guest post on Nancy Christie's blog: What to look for in an editor

On Friday, while Nancy Christie's interview was featured on this blog, my guest post "What to look for in an editor" went up on hers. How's that for tricksy? ;*)

Excerpt:

You've written the thing - the chapbook of poems, the collection of short stories or essays, the novel(la), the nonfiction book that's going to change the world (or at least hopefully make you a few bucks) - and now what you need is another pair of eyes to help you refine it into publish-perfect form.

You look in the LinkedIn forums or on Twitter, you ask friends and writer acquaintances for recommendations, and you come away with a few names. But how do you choose the right editor for you and your project?

Here are the top five qualities I look for in an editor of my own work....

Read the rest of the article here on Nancy's blog.

A year and a month

Today marks exactly one year and one month since I began freelancing and writing full-time. Since I have no interview to post today, I thought I'd spend some time reflecting over my progress. What have I accomplished in that time? (Obviously will not be an exhaustive list, just the highlights.)

Business Development

• Learned how to use Twitter & now have over 1,100 Twitter followers (plus over 700 followers for my pseudonym)
• Began working with two fabulous business coaches: Jim Newcomer of Balance Breakthrough Coaching; and Jackie Babicky, author of Better, Smarter, Richer: Seven Business Principles for Solopreneurs 
• Narrowed my business focus down to editing and writing coaching
• Am only a few days' consistent traffic away from 1800 hits/month on this blog - WOOT!

What I (re)learned this week

Here are three fairly unrelated things about writing that I learned in the last week-ish.

1. You can't just go on about your busy business and expect the ideas to elbow their way past all the other junk into your brain; you have to make space for them to come. You have to invite them and wait.

Photo by Rick Campbell

Sigh. I thought I knew what I was going to blog about this week. Twice I started blog posts, got a paragraph into them, and then abandoned them. I'd start writing, and then I'd realize I didn't really know what I wanted to say. But instead of sitting with it, instead of making space to think about it, I moved onto the next thing. And I almost didn't write a blog post today because I didn't already know what I wanted to write.

What is a sample edit?

One of the most important parts of my process when talking with potential editing clients is the sample edit. The sample edit acts as a kind of two-way interview between the writer and me. It allows both of us to have a sneak peek into what it would look like to work together and see whether we're a good fit.

What is it?
It's a two-way work sample. I see a sample of the writer's manuscript, and they see a sample of my editing work. Depending on several factors that I won't go into here, it may be a sample of developmental editing, of substantive editing, or of both.

What purposes does it serve?
It gives both the writer and me information we need to decide whether to enter into an editing relationship with one another. I guess that might sound a little strange, but here's what I mean:

What is writing coaching?

Several things happened a month ago (or is it two? darn you, Time, for marching on!) that caused me to consider adding writing coaching to my list of services. "But what is writing coaching?" I thought. "And how is it different from developmental editing?" Much to my surprise, I found I had an answer. Even more surprising: I realized I was already doing it! I've been coaching friends and family (and even editing clients a little bit) for years. I coached my students when I taught writing. I love coaching. I love feeling like I've contributed something positive to people's lives--have helped them gain clarity, overcome their sense of overwhelm, or learn a new writing skill.

But back to the question at hand: What is writing coaching?

Whereas developmental editing is focused on a piece of writing--on bringing that piece of writing to the next level--writing coaching is concerned with the writer's development. It's a bit like an independent study: the writer sets the goals, and the writer and the coach work together to determine how those goals will be met. There may be "assignments," but it's up to the writer to determine whether those assignments are worth trying. The role of the coach is to listen and reflect; to offer suggestions based on her or his experience and expertise; and to help the writer break down larger aspirations into smaller, achievable tasks that do not overwhelm. In a (perhaps oversimplified) nutshell: writing coaching is about helping people identify and remove the barriers to their creative expression.

What you should know before hiring an editor

When people contact me to inquire about editing services, there are several questions I find myself asking each time--not necessarily in the same order--that help me understand their vision for their work, what they need, and what resources they have to work with. You might not know all the answers to these questions right away, and that's okay--part of the purpose of the initial consultation is to help you make some decisions. But the more you know coming into that conversation, the quicker we can determine whether we're a good fit and, if so, how to move forward together.

What are you writing?
This one's easy to answer. (And if it isn't, you should probably check out writing coaching instead of editing at this point.) I ask it because I do my best editing work when I'm interested in what I'm editing. Luckily for me, I'm interested in a lot of different subjects and genres - TESOL, art therapy, higher education, food, travel, lifestyle, relationships, culture, romance and erotica, contemporary fiction, YA lit, memoir, poetry...to name a few. But if someone brings me a science textbook about little-known deep sea crustaceans, chances are I'm not a good fit for the project. (Unless they do the book like this.)

What is copy editing?

And finally, as a follow-up to "What is developmental editing?" and "What is line editing?" I present a post about copy editing--what it is, whether it's necessary, and why people pay for it.

[Please note that this post is written for the academic writers, the independent authors, and the creative writers submitting to lit mags. If you are querying your manuscript, it's reasonable to expect that a publisher would provide copy editing in accordance with their style guidelines if they choose to sign you.]

What is copy editing?
Copy editing is the phase of editing that focuses on correcting errors in spelling, punctuation, capitalization, syntax and grammar and on ensuring that formatting is consistent (and, if you're an academic writer, that it follows your discipline's or the journal's style guidelines) throughout the document. Copy editing is, by and large, a mechanical process. Things are correct or incorrect.

That said, I think it worth noting that creative writers can get away with a lot more, in the name of style, than academic writers can. In academic writing, it's important to be ultra-correct. While it's fine in everyday speech and creative writing to say, "When a person comes to a certain conclusion, they have to act on it," in academic writing it would be considered incorrect, and I'd change the "they have to act on it" to "he or she has to act on it" so that the pronoun matches the subject.

What is line editing?

As a follow-up to my post "What is developmental editing?" I want to talk today about line editing--what it is, whether it's necessary, and why someone would pay for it.

What is line editing?
Line editing is cutting, rearranging, and/or rewriting for clarity, flow, and consistency of tone. It requires the editor to be able to understand the connections between the big picture and the details and to use her or his analytical and creative skills to determine how best to convey the writer's meaning in a style consistent with the writer's voice.

There's a little bit of overlap with developmental editing in that they may both involve some rearranging and suggestions about what to add, but whereas developmental editing looks at the work as a whole, when I line edit I go section by section (or chapter by chapter). The rearranging I do in line editing is within a paragraph or a chapter, and the suggestions for additions are along the lines of "I suggest a sentence here that tells us how she feels about what he just said."

Line editing can include (but is not limited to):

What's the cost of NOT hiring an editor?

My business coach Jim Newcomer asked me this question last week. He was trying to get me to think of ways to pitch my services to potential clients, which makes total sense. But the truth is, questions like this make me mildly uncomfortable. How can I tell anybody else what the cost is to them?

But what I can do, I realized, is think about this question in relation to my own writing. What does it cost me to not hire an editor?

Because hiring an editor is something I have yet to do. Partly because I'm fortunate enough to have the skills to do a lot of my own editing, and partly because I just plain don't have a lot of money to invest in those services right now.

But, so, yeah. What does it cost me? Here are a few ideas:

A slight change in direction

As followers of this blog will know, one of the goals I've recently set for myself is to "try to stop trying to do so much." Hah! Easier said than done. But dang it, I'm trying! And to prove it, I've made some changes to this site. Namely, I've removed references to the tutoring and consulting parts of my business.

Why? Two reasons. First, honestly, I have enough to do keeping up with my writing and the editing part of the business. And second, after getting some good constructive feedback on this website today from my fabulous business coach Jim Newcomer, I decided that I could stand to simplify.

So yes, my plan right now consists of growing the editing side of the business while keeping up with my writing projects. I do have some exciting ideas for this summer and fall that involve teaching classes or workshops and leading writing retreats, but I'm not quite ready to talk about them yet. Partly because they're still developing, partly because I don't want to jinx myself.

When should you start working with an editor?

One of the questions that comes up almost every time as I talk with prospective clients is when they should start working with an editor. At what point in the writing process is it most appropriate to contract with an editor? When is it too early and merely a waste of time?

The short answer: 

You should start working with an editor when you need help.

The longer answer:

"Need help" is defined as: when you're stuck on your writing project (aka "writer's block") or don't have enough distance from it to do what needs to be done next. Or when you have no idea what needs to be done next.

The longest answer:

What is developmental editing?

The topic of developmental editing--what it is, why anyone in their right mind would pay for it, whether it's necessary--has come up several times in the last week or so in conversations I've had with various people, including a potential client, a small business coach, a fellow writer/editor, and a marketing specialist I met at a friend's birthday gathering.

In a July 2012 post about editing and proofreading I gave a very brief rundown of the three types of editing I do: developmental, line, and copy. But the conversations over this last week have led me to want to provide a more detailed description of developmental editing here.

So you want to be a writer

Somewhere once I read that some famous writer said something like, "If you want to be a writer, then write." It is that easy, but it's also not that easy. I mean, if it were really that easy, then we would all be writers already, right?

Some people think the way to become a writer is by studying how other people have done it and learning all the "rules" to "good" writing. You can spend years reading books on how to write. Others think you have to have a degree in creative writing in order to call yourself a writer.

And these people who say that a "real" writer writes because s/he is compelled to and can't not write...I kind of want to punch these people in the face (not that I would ever). 'Cause I have it in me and it really wants to come out, and also it's a terrifying thing to try to articulate and organize the mental chaos and watch it come out on paper (or in a text box) and witness how different it looks outside the head as compared to inside.

On working with an editor

YYAAAAAYY!!! *twirly dance twirly dance twirly dance* It is SO AWESOME to be working with an editor! I love it!

So I've started volunteering for VoiceCatcher, which so far has been a great experience. I've agreed to interview past contributors to the journal--both artists and writers--and write one article per month for the blog based on those interviews. One interview/article per contributor.

My first assignment was to interview and write about Willa Schneberg, who is an amazing person and whose website you really need to check out. Anyway, when I was done with the initial draft of the article on her, it ended up being a little over 1600 words--eek! Obviously too long, but I didn't know what to cut out. Everything I'd written seemed important to me. If I were on my own, I would've had to set it aside for a while or make random guesses about what other people might find less compelling than other bits.

Feel the fear and do it anyway

Today I did some developmental editing work for a couple of clients, and my interactions with them over the last couple of days have reminded me what a terrifying thing it can be to share one's work, especially with a stranger. I know that all my writing--whether fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction--holds clues about my inner self, and that makes it risky to share.

An extreme example: I took a creative non-fiction writing class in the spring, and every week we had to turn in two pages that we'd written that week. Except we didn't just have to turn it in to the instructor; we had to read it aloud to 2-3 of our classmates. So terrifying! I was producing some really raw, vulnerable stuff, and it was hard enough to let someone else read it, much less read it aloud in front of people whom I didn't know well or at all.

Some creative writing prompts

The scary blank page.

Not that blogging's not good, but writing fiction, poetry, or creative non-fiction has a very different feel to me, and--as I mentioned in my last post--I want more of that.

I've heard/read creative writers say that absolutely anything can be used as inspiration for writing. That's great, but when you're free falling and can't see anything around you to grab onto, it's really not that helpful. You need someone to say, "Look to your right! Big branch! Grab it!"

So I thought I'd share some ideas for creative writing prompts that I've either used lately or are in my To-be-used bucket for when the well seems to have run dry. (Yes, I know I'm mixing my metaphors. Deal with it.)

How to be a published writer: Step 4

Step 4: Edit and proofread.

Only after I've completed one or two revisions and have judged a work "good enough" (because it will never be perfect) do I turn my attention to editing and proofreading.

As I wrote in "Every writer needs an editor," when it came time to edit and proofread my novella, I couldn't trust myself to do it. My head was so much in it that I stopped seeing what was on the page. I noticed as I tried to read it for the billionth time that I was skipping over whole sentences or even entire paragraphs. I needed an editor's help.

A quick note on terminology here, because there are at least three kinds of editing--developmental editing, line editing, and copy editing--and then there's proofreading too. "Oh my!" I hear you say. "What's the difference?"