Tuesday, 8 October 2013

Editing Outs the Blogging

Haven’t blogged for a while, which is rather remiss of me, but there is a reason, frankly I’ve been too busy working.

As well as working the usual 9 - 5, or in my case 07:30 to 15:30, I’ve been very fortunate in securing a second job.  The job is as a freelance editor, mainly working for Jefferson Franklin Editing, but also a couple of independent pieces.  Admittedly I took a second job to pay my son’s rent through university, but for what is possibly the first time ever, I have a job that I love so much is doesn’t feel like work.  Even when I am slogging through the worst prose ever, I’d still rather be doing that than working in a office - even though I’m still working in a office and on a laptop, but I’m sure you know what I mean. 

I will admit that I suddenly feel a lot less aggrieved by the pile of rejection slips I have in my own filing cabinet.  If editors have seen my work in the appalling light that that I’ve viewed some of my authors work, then I’m not surprised I have a pile of rejections.  I have to say though, that some of the work I’ve gone through has been utterly brilliant.  As well as full edits, JFE also offer free sample edits, and I’ve done a few of those too, three of the ones I edited were so fresh and original that I really hope the full manuscripts come in.


Most of what I’ve edited have been children’s or crime fiction, one even a children’s crime novel - that was fun.  As I specialise in writing crime, this has been a somewhat eye opening experience.  Given the wide variety of crime possibilities out there, maybe my sticking to the police procedural and private eye formula is a risk at the formulaic?  Maybe, but I love it, besides all my best characters have arisen from stories where they weren’t even meant to be the main focus.  Still, more on that next time, and I promise to write sooner.

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