There are plenty of books that tell us how to write. But sometimes it helps to look at our writing from the other side of the desk. What does an editor notice that we might miss? What makes a piece of writing feel polished and professional? And what are some of the mistakes writers make without realizing they’re making them?
Those are some of the things members of Monday Morning Manifestors will be looking at as we read Write, Edit, Publish: What Every Writer Needs to Know but Only an Editor Will Tell You by Michael J. Totten and discuss it during this month’s Writers’ Book Chat on the 4th Monday of this month.
Why We’re Reading Write, Edit, Publish
Michael J. Totten brings an interesting perspective to the subject because he isn’t only a writer. He’s also a professional editor with more than two decades of experience. His editing work includes developmental editing, line editing, copyediting, and proofreading, so he sees the kinds of problems that appear in manuscripts again and again. That’s what makes this book especially appropriate for our September challenge and theme: Refinement & Mastery.
This month, we’ve been talking about becoming better writers by looking more closely at the work we’re already doing. That doesn’t mean chasing perfection. It means learning more about the craft so we can make better decisions about our own writing. And sometimes the best way to do that is to learn what an experienced editor sees when they look at a manuscript.
We’re Taking Two Months to Read This One
This isn’t a little book we can breeze through in a weekend. Write, Edit, Publish is nearly 400 pages long, and it covers a lot of territory. So we’re going to do something a little different with Writers’ Book Chat. We’ll discuss the first half of the book during our September Writers’ Book Chat. Then we’ll read the second half for our October Writers’ Book Chat. I think we’ll get much more from the book this way. Instead of racing through it just so we can say we finished, we can stop and think about what we’re reading. We can also start noticing some of these things in our own writing.
What Can We Learn From an Editor?
One thing I like about the premise of this book is that it encourages us to see our writing differently. As writers, we know what we intended. We know what the character is thinking. We know where the story is going. We know what we’re trying to explain in a nonfiction book or article.
The reader doesn’t know any of that. Neither does an editor who sees the manuscript for the first time. They can only respond to what’s actually on the page. That’s an important distinction.
Totten’s professional editing work deals with everything from openings, structure, organization and pacing to dialogue, description, clarity, wordiness, grammar, punctuation and those final stray errors caught during proofreading. In other words, editing isn’t simply correcting commas after the writing is finished. It’s another stage of making the writing work.
Read With Your Own Writing in Mind
As you read the first half of Write, Edit, Publish, I encourage you to do more than highlight passages you find interesting. Think about your own writing. When Totten points out a problem writers commonly make, ask yourself: Do I do that? When he explains a way to make something stronger, look at something you’ve written and see whether the advice applies. You don’t have to turn the reading into homework. But you can let it make you a little more aware of your own habits. That’s one of the ideas behind our September Writing Challenge. Refinement isn’t about suddenly becoming a perfect writer. It’s about seeing your work more clearly and learning how to make it stronger.
You can also revisit our September Writing Challenge: Refinement & Mastery as you work through the book and connect what you’re learning with this month’s challenge.
And if you want to look at the bigger picture of how your thoughts, habits, and identity influence the writing life you’re creating, visit our pillar page, The Law of Attraction for Writers.
Come Ready to Talk About It
Our Writers’ Book Chats aren’t book reports. You don’t need to remember every point or agree with everything the author says. In fact, some of our best conversations can come from the things we question. What did you agree with? What surprised you? What made you rethink something you’ve been doing? Was there advice you disagreed with? And, most important, did anything you read change the way you looked at your own writing? Those are the things we’ll talk about.
So for this month’s Writers’ Book Chat, read approximately the first half of Write, Edit, Publish.
Don’t worry about getting to the end yet. We’ll save that for next month. For now, read slowly enough to notice what an editor might be teaching you to see.
Not a member of Monday Morning Manifestors yet?
Click here to learn more and to register.
And to receive more writing tips and resources every weekday morning, get your free subscription to The Morning Nudge.
Subscribe here:
