Editing Run · 12:50am Jan 11th, 2013
So for a short time recently, I've taken on a giant chain of editing jobs and requests in between finishing up Black Box 3. Some have been fun, some have been hard, some have been really f-ing awful. However, recently a review/editee came back with feedback saying I had been rude and hurtful. At first I was confused, but after having looked through my work to see what he may be referring to, he was right... I was overly harsh and came off as a condescending jerk. I tried to be honest and constructive but only managed to berate an authors hard work. I've honestly never been more ashamed at my failure as a "help" in my life. I brought a newer writer to a place of misery and shame. I've done the one thing that I believed should never have to happen to any aspiring writer. I don't know if I should be an editor anymore...
Right, now I still have Asylum by Daemon of decay in line, then Apples and Wheat by TheAlmightySage. You guys are still in line, if you still have no objections that is...
These may well be one of my last edit/reviews. If I can't not be crushingly hurtful to my poor editees, I don't know if I should do this anymore.
No, objections here.
To make a quote, "Regret nothing, but be penitent for those you harm."
The best anyone can do after screwing up is apologizing and fixing things as best as one can.
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I did what I could, to mend and fix my wrongdoing. I still feel like a scumbag, though. It's one of those things where you say: "Wow, all I want is never be that guy. He's a jerk" and then today I realized I was that guy.
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Yeah that's never a good feeling.
We all have our low-points, shouldn't put you off from doing what you enjoy. Learn from your mistakes, move on, all that Zen stuff.
Besides, it'd be a waste for fimfiction to lose a skilled editor like yourself over a single happenstance
I"ve fully read your response and i'll admit i wasn't expecting you to take it like you did. After reading this jornal i see that it does seem to bother you seemingly as much as it bothered me. Why did i bother going to your page to read this? Well, simply cause i like to get to know my editors a little as well as the fact that i don't write to often, so when i get to share it i want it to be something special, so i like to get to know my editors as they review my work.
You're not a bad editor, you just have a bit of a bad habit of treating your editiees like novices as well as be a tad harsh, as you may have noticed. PLus when people Are novices they most likely won't know things like 'comma splice' or 'em dash.' Heck, i'm relatively experienced yet even i had to look up 'slited writing,' so you may want todo something about that
Giving criticism is like, Tuning a string. Yes, i'm big on music. Anyway don't give enough or be to soft about it and the string will not have the desired sound to it for its too weak. Yet, be to strenuous with it or pull it to much, and the string will be to tight, making the sound feel unpleasent, or may even snap(i got a little nutty about how grammer works, i'll admit
). What i'd recomend is, if you get the chance, talk to your editiee as well if posible. You don't have to go out of your way to do this, i' djust recomend it, it's always nice to talk to someone you've goten to know a little. Also in a review, people are looking for what they did wrong, yet it also doesn't hurt to see what they did right, or relativly well. It takes just a truely posative statment to change the air of review.
We can talk about this more tommarow. I've been lacking in my sleep and i was late to school today because of it, so i don't plan to repeat this mistake
although i'm think i got down the fundimental of what i wanted to say
...You kind of remind me of somebody i used to know. A relative friend who was vain and was bothersome for all the wrong reasons, yet he knew it...I'll talk about that some other time
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Well... this is certainly interesting. I hadn't planned on you seeing this. I hadn't even planned to vent through it, just to give a heads up on editing availability, but my emotional state seems to have a way of bleeding through my statements. Maybe a bad habit...
Either way, I suppose it's a good thing you had stopped by and gave your 2 cents. It's hard to find that place where you're still honest yet not too hard about it. Every writer is different. Some just want a little help and feedback to guide them along but others like the brutal scrutiny. It's something that, from now on, I'm going to ask the author to gauge for me before I get into it.
>We can talk about this more tommarow.
Well, if there's anything you want to add, feel free to let out your thoughts here or in a PM.
I'm going to finish with my que and then I've got to go see about another request by this guy called heliostorm. (Seriously, where the hell do some of these people come from? Is somebody sending these poor misguided people my way or something?)