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Reader needs trump writer loves: Editor's Notes #274 November 14, 2018 |
| Hello, —Jill Talbot In this issue: 1. Reader needs trump writer loves 2. Tickled my funny bone 3. Interesting Web site 4. Writing prompt 5. A one-time offer from me 1. Reader needs trump writer loves Most writers I know love to write. Take away the pen or the keyboard, and a light goes out of the universe. As an editor, I’ve learned that each writer has a unique combination of writing delights. Some love a type of character, others are drawn to complex plot lines. Some love lyrical language, others lean to metaphors. Some love to research, others thrive on reading their writing aloud. The list goes on and on, but there is always something about writing that a writer loves. When you want to sell your writing, reader needs enter the picture. Readers often look for writers who love to write what the reader loves to read, and it’s great when there is a good match. As a writer, you can’t go around asking individual readers what they prefer, so how do you minimize a clash between your need and that of your reader? You ask yourself tough questions about your writing, not as you do it, but as you revise it.
As a writer, you have every right to write to please yourself. If you want to be published, be sure that you also take your readers’ needs into account. One of the most important jobs I do as an editor is to bring a professional readers’ perspective to a text. I never want to spoil the writer’s enjoyment of writing, only to improve the chance that it will be successfully published. =========== 2.Tickled my funny bone If you cannot read this, this leaflet will tell you how to get lessons. =========== 3. Interesting Web site If you understand more about why readers read, you become a better writer. Here are some reasons people read. How well does your writing mesh? http://whytoread.com/why-to-read-10-reasons-why-reading-books-will-save-your-life/ =========== 4. Writing prompt Right now I’m thinking that revising work is something like cleaning up a garden in the fall. Write about revising text using either my metaphor (fall clean-up = revising a text) or another of your choosing. I’d love to see what you come up with. =========== 5. A one-time offer from me One of the best things you can do for yourself as a writer is to learn more about your own writing. I offer an educative edit that helps writers to make their writing more reader-friendly. It’s the edit I do when someone sends me writing for a sample edit. Prospective clients usually pay a small fee that is later rebated if they hire me to edit their work. I do only one such sample edit per person. From now until the end of 2018, subscribers can ask for a longer sample edit of up to 1000 words instead of 500 words and not have that particular sample edit count toward the one sample edit per person. This sample is also completely free of charge. This means that anyone can use this one-time free sample edit, even people who have had a sample edit previously. If you have never had a sample edit and you use this one, you can still have the paid sample edit later if you want to. And you might want to. If you learn something important from this free edit, and you apply what you’ve learned to future writing, there is a good chance that any subsequent edits would cost less because I would not have to keep correcting the same thing over and over. You win because you save money, and I win because I’m reading better writing, and I always prefer better writing. To learn more about the sample edit, click this link after reading the rest of this explanation. https://www.writershelper.com/sample-edit.html I encourage you to read the whole page up to the link to the promotion code form so you understand what you get. If you’ve already read the page because you’ve had a sample edit, go ahead and scroll down the page until you see the headline Promotion Code. There’s a link in that section to the special form for those with a code. Your code for this promotion is EN 274. It is in effect until midnight Pacific Standard Time on December 31, 2018. =========== Join Writer's Helper Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/WritersHelperEditor Follow me on Twitter @AudreytheEditor Link on LinkedIn https://ca.linkedin.com/in/audreyowen (Email me first so I know how you know me.) =========== If you know a writer who would appreciate receiving Editor's Notes, forward this issue. If someone has passed this on to you, you can get your own free subscription by signing up at https://www.writershelper.com/newsletter.html |
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