30 Days - Day 24

So yeah. 'Twas a day alright.

Editing. All 4 levels of editing. Other people's words chewing around in my brain. Only once four times did I bang my head off the keyboard.

Here are the different types of editing:

(1)Developmental, structural or substantive editing i.e the whole picture.

(2)Paragraph-Level Edit
Also called stylistic or line editing

(3)Sentence-Level Edit
Also called copyediting

(4)Word-Level Edit
Also called proofreading.

Nearly the whole day spent on two short stories. Editors earn their keep. Truly. I can't believe the amount of work. I think I edit others' work much better than I do my own. Too close to it. Lesson learned.

I am NOT an editor, but then again I was NOT a director nor a playwright nor a......

We never know until we try, do we?

What are the odds?

Life throws the strangest curveballs sometimes. And it struck me that if I wasn't totally anonymous on this blog I couldn't post this entry. H'm.

Here I am with massive re-writes (read: reduce content) to perform on my collection of short stories. Ordered by my editor.

I haven't done them yet as I am committed to writing thirty pages of my newest novel every week. A book she has requested first dibs on.

In January I applied for an Arts and Letters Award for one of my pieces that had received quite a bit of favourable attention. *Inspects fingers, glances shyly downward*.

This piece has not been submitted to anyone before.

It is an anonymous process, applying for this award, meaning that the applicant is anonymous to the reader but not vice versa. And guess what? The adjudicator of my piece is the blooming editor of my short story collection.

She recommended rejection. Said it was too wordy. Said 'cut the first six pages'.

Gobsmacked doesn't begin to cover my reaction.