Editing: The Secret Weapon

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/the-secret-life-of-a-book-manuscript/536982/

As mentioned in my introductory blog post, I want to pursue a career in book editing. The Atlantic published an article on a writers transformative encounter with editing that makes one reconsider its importance and how essential it is to the finishing product of a text. 

Thomas E. Ricks submitted his latest work to his editor and was stunned to have it nearly rejected. It seems it was a bit wounding to his ego to have 3 years worth of work to be strongly disliked by someone. However, all was not lost. Ricks took into consideration the lengthy words of advice given to him by his editor and made a masterpiece of what was previously quite a mess.

Ricks humorous rhetoric creates a personal narrative to highlight the importance of editing rather than just plainly saying so. He writes for an audience interested in curating texts, one that would appreciate and understand his journey in  the writing of his novel and his many references to Churchill and Orwell. It is not a scholarly piece but very conversational in its tone seeing as he often adds humorous side comments or the occasional curse word. Ricks awareness of his audience allows him to ignore conventional constraints and use language that might be otherwise offensive to a younger or more conservative audience. The platform of the article, an online version of The Atlantic, delineates the genre. Being a magazine known for literary and cultural commentary, Ricks uses this platform to recount his own personal relationship with editing through his example of how it was the “making or breaking” of his novel. When referring to the advice given to him by his editor, it seems it is mostly centered around assemblage. He mentions having to completely disassemble his manuscript comparing the act of writing to building a house and in his case, knocking his house down and building it back up more efficiently and on a stronger foundation. After carefully redrafting his work, he finds this new, fine-tuned version of his writing to be so much easier to read compared to his “herky-jerky” initial draft and in this he creates exigency. To a reader, his personal problems were (to his surprise) completely fixed by the editing stage of writing and anyone who has taken interest in this piece can find that their solution lies in the same. Through multiple versions, edits and re edits, deeper research, and an ability to take criticism, Ricks found editing to be the key that took his novel from a confusing patchwork to a seamless narrative.