The next few weeks of Friday Fives are going to consist of mini-interviews with my friends and extended family of people within my industry. I am hoping for a variety of interview subjects. Since my group of friends/family is somewhat small, expect some people to reappear within the Friday Fives speaking about different subjects. This should be a quick interesting glimpse into the realm of all-things-writing.
My questions are in bold font to make it easier to see. Answers follow the bold A: and my comments follow in red brackets.
My friend and fantastic editor Steven Thompson agreed to be the first Friday Five subject.
Q: How do you approach a project?
A: First, I avoid approaching it at all for as long as possible. [lol] Then. once I make the decision to do so, I jump in wholeheartedly and just get right to work.
Q: What kind of enjoyment do you get out of editing?
A: Honestly, I'm not some great expert on the right way to do things and I know that. But I do tend to recognize the WRONG way when I see it and it makes me feel good being able to steer someone away from that at least.
Q: What advice do you have for your writers that would make your job easier?
A: It's not the writers' job to make my job easier. It's the writers' job to be creative and that's all I ask of them. My job is to take that rampant creativity and clean up after it.
Q: What is the most difficult thing to deal with as an editor?
A: The writer…present company excepted. [D'awww. Thank you!]
Q: In your opinion, do/should all writers make good editors?
A: Well, there's no need for it, I suppose…but I think it's inevitable in most cases. A writer is rarely the best editor for their own work but I think the simple process of writing itself makes one acutely sensitive to mistakes in grammar, spelling, continuity and other issues, in essence making them a good editor whether or not they realize it. [I think that goes along with a writer should always take the opportunity to read anything they can get their hands on, especially works outside of their genre. We learn just as much by observing the mistakes of others as we do by making the mistakes ourselves.]
Have any questions for Steven about editing? Post them in the comments section below and I'll try to badger him into answering them when he gets some free time to do so!
Stay tuned for next week's Friday Five when Steven talks about blogging. And yes, he is qualified to talk about blogging since he runs/writes a baker's dozen.
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