The Elegant Variation: GUEST: COPYEDITING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

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September 30, 2005

GUEST: COPYEDITING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

A huge influence on my writing was the work I did as a copy editor. I made a living as a copy editor for a few years, including about 2 years almost exclusively for Viking/Penguin. How an unedjumacated non-college-attending former-soldier-slob folksinging happy idiot such as myself became a copy editor and proofreader for Viking/Penguin is a long, tedious story, but suffice to say someone must have taken pity on me.

So why so important to my writing? A few reasons, some of them practical, some of them creative, some of them nuts-and-bolts. For one, it forced a breadth of reading I wouldn’t have had otherwise (not likely, I, to pick up The Secret Language of Names or a manual on Java or a biography of Van Day Truex). It forced a serious contemplation of punctuation and language and grammar choices. Because I got to read the margin-scribbled “conversations” between authors and editors (especially on the proofreading jobs, when I was last in line with the manuscript), I was allowed a glimpse inside the world of publishing when I was still outside of it, as well as a glimpse inside the creative (or noncreative) decisions of authors and editors.

It was inspiring. I was doing this work while writing my first novel. When a piece of, shall we say it, shit crossed my desk, I was inspired: “If they’ll publish this, shall we say it, shit, they’ll publish anything…and I’m writing anything right now.” When a piece of beauty crossed my desk, I got to be inside of it, pull it apart, admire it, and force myself and my work to rise to it.

So what did I get to do? Much fun: William Vollmann’s Argall. I think Mr. V. had a bad reputation with the Viking copy editors. I think he didn’t like them very much. So the managing editor sent me the manuscript for Argall. I read it through, and, essentially, write STET across the whole thing and called it a day (not really, but pretty close). We heard later from Paul Slovak that Vollmann said it was the best copyediting he’d ever had. Aw, shucks.

I did me some Martha Grimes. Some unpublished Kerouac. Some Niall Ferguson. The Dalai Lama. The Dalai leads to an interesting conundrum: how do you copy edit the Dalai? Are you going to tell the Dalai he put a comma in the wrong place? I don’t think so.

I wrote a piece about the aftermath of a copyediting job, here.

Posted at 09:18 AM in Virtual Book Tour | Permalink

Comments

How does one become a copyeditor? Is that the kind of job one falls into? Or do you need to be schooled or something? I am genuinely curious, as it's something I've thought of doing but no nothing about.

Posted by: bookdwarf | September 30, 2005 at 09:31 AM

I took a class in it, at NYU's School of Continuing Education. This was in 1996 or so, I think. Maybe 1997. It was a 1-semester fundamentals in copyediting and proofreading taught by Tory Klose, the managing editor of Viking and a bit of a publishing legend. She learned us up good, y'all.
Most (or many, I should say) community colleges offer a copyediting fundamentals course. The problem then, as it is with so many things, is finding work. Once you have a a few good clients on the resume, it gets easier. But those first few are difficult.
There is a newsletter publication called Copy Editor that has an online presence and a job forum (or they used to, anyway; it's been a few years since I've checked).

Posted by: Christian Bauman | September 30, 2005 at 10:59 AM

I agree with you--I've had a similar experience. Other than a few adolescent novel- and short-story writing attempts, and one novelwriting attempt at 20 years old, I really didn't "start" writing seriously until after I'd worked in publishing for several years.

I think more people seem to evolve the opposite way: they start out as writers and wind up becoming editors. I say, it's probably better to start out as an editor and wind up becoming a writer. Though there are other options, like starting out as an editor and remaining one, starting out as a writer and remaining one, starting out as neither and remaining as neither or ultimately becoming an editor or writer or both, and so on.

IMO, possessing colorful (and preferably pretty vast) life experiences before "becoming" a writer is often very important. I never intended to work as an editor or even be a writer. I have a background in science and landed an in-house job with a scientific nonfiction publisher; jobs of any kind were tough to come by at the time....

Posted by: Fran | September 30, 2005 at 11:13 AM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 30, 2005

GUEST: COPYEDITING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

September 30, 2005

GUEST: COPYEDITING FOR FUN AND PROFIT

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism