August 23, 2015

How Editing Can Make or Break Your Book Explained by Bernice Fischer

Bernice Fischer (Author)

Bernice Fischer


Personal site

Bernice Fischer is an author hailing from South Africa who was virtually born into the world of literature and has recently published her first novel, Jeff Madison and the Shimmers of Drakemere , a work largely acclaimed as brilliant and promising.

When most aspiring authors think of writing their first book they are extremely focused on the writing itself. How should they get started, develop characters, create the setting, describe appearances... and so on and so forth. While learning about the process of writing is certainly important in the creation of a novel (after all, very few of us can make an enthralling story with instincts alone), there is much more to it. As a matter of fact, what comes after you've finished writing will take up a lot more time and effort than you imagined.

Though book editors aren't exactly heralded as heroes by most readers, they play a role equally important to the author's in shaping the final product. Frankly, I could go on and on all day about how important editing is, but I believe it can be far better explained by author Bernice Fischer, as she did in an e-mail exchange:

Bernice Fischer says:
“You asked how I managed get my book so polished and complete –well… I would love to say that I am brilliant… but I can’ - I used two awesome editors.
The first one is James Thayer from Seattle. His 14th book will be published next year and it has been noted by Clive Cussler that James is a “master storyteller”. He is brilliant, expensive, but brilliant. He helped me with line editing throughout the book –of name just a few issues: show rather than tell, he pointed out where to remind the reader on what the characters looks like, descriptions etc. No, he did not do the work for me but he “opened up” my mind to think differently and to see a picture and then to transcribe that picture into words. It was a lot of work but well worth it. I feel that I have learnt a lot from James during the whole process (he also teaches writing at the University of Washington), he never puts the author down but builds the writer up, points out the strengths and how to grow it and also points out weaker areas and how to fix and work through it.”

And so as we can see, a good editor will read your book from the cover page to the very last word and concentrate their efforts on making it more pleasurable and accessible to the reader. On a certain level, editors can be described as the middlemen (or middlewomen, of course) between the author and the reader, helping the former cater to the latter. On another level, they are teachers who try to elevate writers, their students, as high as they possibly can. But even that is only a part of the editing process, as Fischer further explains:
“Then due to the publishing process I was in… it was insisted that another editor also had a quick read through to make sure that all was in order. I was introduced to Maya Fowler-Sutherland who now lives in Canada. She was just WOW!

She polished the manuscript until I had to wear sunglasses to read it (okay, yes… I did most of the work but she held my hand all the way, I sound like a baby but in the writing world… I am). She chopped up the chapters and requested scenes to be added in various places to make the story flow. She tweaked and again pointed out parts where I could “show” some more. She approached the book in a totally different way. She was also brutal when it came to deleting scenes… if they did nothing for the story and I could not provide a good enough argument as to why they had to stay –then they had to go. I cried as I cut but I knew that she was right. (after the book was done –I have NO REGRETS about the deleted scenes… did not even miss them).

This was my first book –I could not have done it without them. Book 2 in the series has just been sent to James, there after it will go to Maya –there is just no other way for me. I am dying to know from James if I have made progress since he edited my first book”
Editing isn't just about taking a ready product and smoothing it out... rather, it's like taking a raw and jagged sculpture to work it over until it becomes presentable to the rest of the world. After all, we would do well to remember that the writings we intend to publish need be approached differently than the ones we do for ourselves. It's certainly not a part of the process you can afford to skip over...as a matter of fact, the more of your time and resources you dedicate to it, the more likely you'll be to make a name for yourself in the vast world of literature.

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