Words Unlimited

Book of The Month - September 2013 - The Editor's Eye

As I prepare to meet new students in October, The Editor’s Eye keeps rising to the top of my recently read pile as a useful resource. There are so many ‘How To Write’ books but few that turn such a forensic eye on the editing process.

This book stands out because of the way in which the author shows that editing is a series of stages, integral to the writing process, “… taking place before a book is written, while writing, after the first draft, and before and after a book is sent to book design.”  Editing is far more than checking spelling and punctuation.

In my experience there are two common ways in which beginning writers misunderstand editing, especially with their first book-length project. There are those who have cripplingly high expectations, believing that the first draft should come out near perfect, bar a few typos. On the other hand, there are those who say, “Oh, an editor will sort out my work once it’s finished.”  These writers tend to rush to send a first messy draft to an agent who, they feel sure, will spot its potential and sell it to an editor who will clean it all up. This is so unlikely to happen, especially in the current climate. The more polished a manuscript the more likely it is to rise to the top of the pile, but that polishing does not happen on the first draft.  If you’ve caught yourself thinking in either of these ways and you’re serious about putting your work out there, then this book could be for you.

Part of developing as a writer part is to become more skilled at being your own editor. That is, to know when to let yourself play and become lost in the creative exploration of your material and when to standing back to assess what you have.

The author breaks down the processes that get lumped together in the word Editing, suggesting there are four stages:

1. Developmental, which can occur before you start to write: brainstorming; testing out the concept for non-fiction; character studies or backstories for fiction; identifying holes in your outline; identifying research you might need.
2. Substantive, this is most likely to occur when you have a good chunk of manuscript written in a first draft. It involves working at a structural level: order of chapters; pacing; voice/tone; identifying missing content. This is standing back to see if the whole is hanging together.
3. Copyediting, attends to house style, spelling, punctuation, etc.
4. Proofreading, your last chance to get it fixed.

Many beginning writers think that editing is just 3 and 4. What’s really useful about this book are the chapters on 1 and 2. That said, to talk of stages and numbering things 1-4 suggests that all it takes to write a book is to be systematic. We all know it’s messier than that and Stacy Ennis is careful to acknowledge that.  Writing is all about going back and forth between order and chaos. This book will really help you when you need to be in ‘order’ mode and to decide what kind of order you might require.

The book is likely to be most useful to those writing non-fiction, but there is useful stuff for fiction writers too, such as making an outline to clarify your story either before you write or maybe when you have a few chapters but aren’t sure how they work together. 

Any writer keen to understand and to strengthen their own writing process could benefit from reading The Editor’s Eye. It offers a space in which each writer can take time to reflect on what might work for them, to take a fresh look at how to work productively with spontaneity and planning.

Reaching Out - An Anthology

I'm delighted to have two of my poems - 'Dear Occupier' & 'Reservoir' - included in this latest anthology from Cinnamon Press.  Edited by Rowan B Fortune, it gathers together a wide range of short fiction and poetry - a great way to sample new work.

Paul Muldoon & Don Paterson on Seamus Heaney

Talking, as I was in my last post, of getting back to words, I must write about a memorable poetry reading that I was lucky enough to catch last Saturday. I happened to be up in Manchester the day Paul Muldoon and Don Paterson were reading as part of the Manchester Literature Festival.

Seamus Heaney was to have read with Muldoon, and so this proved to be a moving event. Barely two weeks after Heaney’s death Paterson and Muldoon paid tribute, bringing the spirit of Seamus into the Cosmo Rodewald Concert Hall.

Don Paterson prefaced his set by saying he made no apology for the sadness embedded in his choice of work. Clearly still in melancholy mood at Heaney’s passing, Paterson recalled the text message he’d received from another poet on hearing the news. It read: We’re on our own now. He’d had to agree, said Paterson, “it’s as if the head of the household has gone.” 

He then read with great affection a clutch of Heaney’s poems, including 'St Kevin and The Blackbird,' before moving on to reading his own recent and unpublished work – all sonnets. Paterson admitted he’d had a period of two years not writing poetry and that it is to Heaney’s work he turns when needs to be reminded of how poetry works.

Paul Muldoon also paid tribute to the influence Heaney had had on his own work by first reading a Heaney poem, then moving on to one of his own that, in some way, owed a debt to or had a corresponding image. 

As this reading was also part of the British and Irish Contemporary Poetry Conference, the audience was thick with poets, among them: David Wheatley, Kathleen Jamie, Deryn Rees-Jones, Helen Mort and Amanda Dalton.

There was much murmuring of agreement when Muldoon ended the evening by saying, “The spirit of Seamus will hang over us for a long time,” then, as if to prove the point, read Heaney’s ‘Harvest Bow’ with such tender pacing, particularly in the last stanza:

The end of art is peace
Could be the motto of this frail device
That I have pinned up on our deal dresser—
Like a drawn snare
Slipped lately by the spirit of the corn
Yet burnished by its passage, and still warm.

Creative Risk

I’ve been away for a long summer break and that included NOT writing – what might happen to the ninety-thousand words of my current work-in-progress while I wasn’t looking?

I also wanted to soak up new experiences away from words.

One of the most memorable experiences this summer was to attend a performance of Grimes on The Beach. An opera staged on a shingle beach with a back-drop of the North Sea in an English summer? If that doesn’t define creative risk, well what does? There was no fall back, either perform or cancel – a massive, complex creative undertaking at the mercy of the weather.  Really, what do we novelists have to moan about? Unbelievably, for each of the three nights it was staged the weather held.

Having watched the live performance on Aldeburgh beach on 21 June it seemed a bit of an indulgence to go and see the film, released on 5 September. But the film provided a whole new perspective on the opera and on Oke's performance as Grimes.

More creative risk as the film-makers avoided simply making a film of an opera on the beach. It is so much more interesting than that, and compelling. If it’s on at a cinema near you, I do recommend.

Mid-September and I'm back at my desk beginning to work again with words.

I’m keeping the images from this production and the music of Benjamin Britten in my head to remind myself to dare to something risky as I pull those ninety thousand words into the shape of a novel.