No Strings Attached

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4 Responses to “Blessing or Curse?”

1. Rachel says:

   March 31, 2004 at 10:14 pm

   Oh, yeah. That happens to me a lot. I’ve been doing peer editing for friends online for several years now and, sometimes, I read things and I just cringe.

   The downside of that is now I’m in a period in my own writing where I stare at what I’ve written and don’t feel satisfied with it. I keep knowing that something’s not quite right, that I need to make it better somehow, but I’m blind into figuring out how to do that. I’m slowly coming out of that rut, trying to put a new perspective on how I do my own writing, and it’s helping so far.

   But, back to your post, since this is a not a good place to rant about my own writing problems (I have my own blog for that). I think sometimes big authors get big heads – that they think their writing is perfect just as it is and they’re uncomfortable having it fiddled with. Some people I’ve edited before are like that now – they’ve gotten such good reviews in the past that they don’t understand why the thing they gave me to read is so covered in red that it looks like a serial killing took place. What they fail to realize is one simple rule that my creative writing teacher taught us back in college: There are no good writers – only great editors.

2. Pascal says:

   April 1, 2004 at 5:58 pm

   Hmm, which leads me to wonder…

   Do you sometimes feel the urge to put out your editing pencil when you read your husband’s work?

   That didn’t sound right… lol.

3. Karen says:

   April 2, 2004 at 10:57 pm

   Nothing drives me crazier than to be reading a book and come across errors in grammar or spelling. I am by no means an expert and make plenty of mistakes myself, but to read a finished published work that has not been properly proofread is sloppy, or lazy, or both. It certainly lessens my enjoyment of the work and makes me think twice about reading anything else by that author.

4. ObeeKris says:

   April 4, 2004 at 7:20 pm

   Not being a professional editor or writer, I almost hate to point this out, but it just jumped out at me. Should the “of” in this sentence:
   “It seems like they can no longer write or their editors, of one reason or another, can