Forums » Smalltalk » AMA: Professional editor, first novel project

HELLO everyone!

I work as an editor for a business/industry specific publication. I've been an editor for about 6 years.

I'm also an aspiring novelist, about 50k words into my first serious project. Boy is it HARD!

The only questions I won't answer right now are about the specific industry I work in, for my privacy. :>

Do you edit articles that are submitted to you by contractors? Or do you have a team of dedicated writers that you edit all the time? Do you ever feel bad when you have to make edits to their work?

We have a few different ways that articles come to us. Some are internal, some are from contractors, and some are from industry experts who submit for free because it benefits their personal brand.

Each type has a slightly different editing approach.

For internal articles, I can be pretty picky, and will ask for heavy edits or even advise an article be killed based on quality and research.

For contractors, if an article doesn't meet standards it gets sent back. Otherwise I might do minor edits.

For external authors we use as light a touch as possible. They're taken on based on the fact that they are experts in their field so unless something is very wrong we will basically only correct spelling and formatting and change as little else as possible. This approach is most difficult for me because for a while I've been working on larger internal projects over which I have a lot of creative control.

So do I feel bad? No, very rarely. Editing can be a tough process but if you're respecting a writer's voice and approaching it from the angle of "I want to make you look as good as possible" then your edits will generally be positively recieved!

Can you tell us a bit about your novel in progress without spoiling the plot? What has that creative process looked like for you?

Oh hi! I have definitely not been dying to answer this question 😅

The shortest way to describe it is: Renaissance fantasy.

It's inspired by Renaissance Italy with a teensy bit of classical Rome and a lot of magic. My wife calls it "magic Olive Garden"

It's more political intrigue than I originally planned, having become something very different as I've written. (It was originally supposed to be romance.)

There are three main characters:
Cinzia, daughter of a city Prince caught in an arranged marriage and looking for a way out. She has a strange connection with undead monsters plaguing her city.

Leone, Cinzia's arranged fiance and walking red flag.

Renata, a woman bestowed with her late husband's responsibilities after his death, caught in a spiral of actions and consequences trying to save her family.

I recently discovered that my style of writing is known as "pantsing" where I go in with no outline and the vaguest ideas of a plan. It's been a difficult but rewarding experience! I have a few folks give me occasional feedback.

Since I have two kids, my creative process looks a lot like "when I have time AND I'm not too exhausted (a rare combination) I try and get words down." That's kind of why I don't do a lot of planning. I like to keep forward momentum and don't have long stretches of time to do it.

I have done an absolute ton of historical research so far!

Thank you for the question :>