Your Editor's Resume · 5:22pm Oct 7th, 2013
I've noticed a very popular trend with fan fiction that I find both interesting and equally disturbing. It has to do with the common practice of story credits.
I parodied this in my story, My Little (every)Pony; I used a few made up usernames as the editors, and I listed a fake group called the, A.B.C.D.E. (Assembly of Bronies for the Creation of Dedicated Excellence), obviously a pun on the group, W.R.I.T.E.
Anyway, as I was saying; this trend with listing editors, pre-readers, and proofreaders has become quite amusing and alarming. I'm "not" against giving credit to where credit is due. I listed several people in the acknowledgment section of my novel, and I'll likely do so again. The upside to this, is that I am listing the people, or persons that have worked tirelessly to assist me with creating a fine piece of work; or at the very least, something that I won't be ashamed of, and thereby getting their name out there for more work. In my case, my editor belongs only to me; so having her name in the end credits is more to bolster her encouragement and self-esteem, not to generate any sort of awareness for her future employment.
The down side to this, is when there is poor work performed by the editor. No one is perfect; don't be fooled into thinking they are. You try writing seventy-six thousand words in four and a half months and see how often you reuse the phrase, first things first. The timetable for publication, the deadlines by me, not to mention the graphic design of the cover art all lead to stress and pressures, and every time there will be flaws. Typos mostly. Then I come along; grab my now completed book and cringe with horror where ever I see the errors. Then it's back two stages, and we do the whole editorial process over again, from scratch.
Just like it's impossible to write a complete manuscript error free, it's equally impossible to catch every mistake, typo, or comma the first time. However, should the manuscript go to print with the errors intact; and should I list my editor and her super-duper mad skills, I am facing two glaring possibilities.
The first is that, the readers will instantly crucify me for the typos. A bit unfair really. Though it's to be expected. I wrote the book, so all content within the pages of the book is mine alone: errors and all. The second thing is that I have just praised my editor for a job poorly performed. That is probably worse than me taking all the heat for that typo that you've flipped your wig over.
So then, the same thing should be applied to fan fiction. I mean, these guys want to be taken seriously as writers, and the editors are constantly frothing about to be more professional than the editorial team at Harper Collins; so my irritation isn't that these wannabe semi-professional editors with a few years of English under their belt get name-dropped at the start of the story, or at the conclusion of the description; it's that more often than not, the fan fiction gets submitted with errors. Bad ones.
There was a story just today that I noticed had four additional people work/look over it. Two pre-readers, and two editors—and there was a glaring horrific error within the very first paragraph. My initial reaction was embarrassment for those people that just got outed by the writer. Whether or not he or she intended it as such, but they just gave the editors and pre-readers a very poor resume. Certainly, I wouldn't use them. Not because of a typo either. A good critic or reviewer knows a typographical error when they see one, and can tell the difference between it and sloppy writing. This was sloppy editing.
So my question is this: what purpose does it serve to list the people that edit one's fan fiction?
Is it an ego thing? Does this encourage the same editors to want to work on this person's stories again? Are they laying the foundation for the editor to get future work? All of the above?
I'm more impressed by a story that makes no grand claims to completion or correctness when it's just the writer listed. This way, I can make allowances for the mistakes, typos, and errant commas. But listing a slew of editors brings with it a certain implication. It's standing up and waving and flapping its arms saying, "Look at me, I've been edited by people; I should be a notch above the rest of this commoner ilk."
Granted the story had immaculate sentence structure; it had near perfect conjunctions, and clauses, both independent and dependent. But there were serious logic problems throughout. Words that were unnecessary or wrong, and the most damning thing of all: it was in the feature box.
I don't utilize people editing my stories here. To me it's rather pointless. One error gets pointed out, fifty get overlooked, and ten get praised. So the backward and forward tossing about of the readers versus the critics cancels out any sort of positive or negative. Only one time have I ever listed an editor, and that was in an apology in the "Author's Notes" at the end of a certain chapter. I rushed the thing, and needed help making sense of it.
I want to conclude by posing the questions above, and simply pointing out that if you are going to name-drop your editor, make sure you and they don't embarrass themselves after the fact. The critics are looking for any and every excuse to burn a writer for the mistakes of an editor; but you will burn the editor at just the mention of their name.
There are several reasons for mentioning an editor of fanfiction in the description.
One is if your editor already has a good reputation among the people you're looking to impress. If I see a name I know and respect as an editor, it bumps the story up a few notches in my likelihood of reading it (and there are a few names on this site I would avoid.) I don't expect the story to be perfect, everyone I know (myself included) has pre-read or proofread a story we'd really like to have nothing to do with, but it's more likely to be something I would read than it would be without that person's involvement. And when it comes down to it, that what all of the information in the description box is -- a collection of things that give you reasons to read, or not read, a story.
The second reason I can think of is how involved the editor was. I personally know a few people for whom their "editor" credits should, in all fairness, read "co-author." Since I know how much of the story actually belongs to that editor, I feel offended if there's not at least an editor credit.
Finally, there's the whole reason most people work on fanfiction-- for attention. The same is true of editors and prereaders who aren't writers themselves. A writer wants views, likes, faves, and a editor wants to be associated with authors who get those things. This is the economy here, and crediting editors for their work on a project, even one that they didn't do a very good job on, adds to their social clout if that story proves popular.
I agree, there are a few people whose names I've come to associate with bad editing, but I still think they should be credited, if only to tell me that I don't really want to read this.
1402559
Good points all.
Which brings me to this, on the opposite side of the spectrum. You say that: "If I see a name I know and respect as an editor, it bumps the story up a few notches in my likelihood of reading it."
What does that say for the people that don't have the benefit of an editor, or a (cringe) pre-reader at their disposal; assuming they just can't find one from among the plethora of helping groups on here?
Sure, I have my favorite writers, and I can agree that the right "group" or "editor" would have me curious about a story... but that sort of seems to elevate some writers while inadvertently subjugating others. (just playing devil's advocate here)
When I'm on here, I hit almost every new story that's on the front page. Granted some of them are terrible. Okay... a lot of them are terrible; but I try to give to the writers as much as I could reasonably expect as a writer: for just one person to read my story.
1402644
Of course it elevates some writers while subjugating others. This is a market place, and most readers don't have the time to read every story, so they make selections based on criteria. Having the wrong genre or characters will lose you views, having no cover art will lose you views, having a bad description will lose you views. And, yes, not having an editor might lose you views. If you want to be a more marketable author, you should probably do your best to fix any of those things.
(Personally, I've found that people who can't find at least a pre-reader are compounding the mistake by not being involved with the community.)
And, if I might ask, why the "ugh" for pre-reading? I find it useful myself because my style actually tends to flow better with shaky grammar (I should use a lot of commas that I don't.) But pre-readers to help with brainstorming, or tell me when a joke isn't landing, or a line seems OOC, have been really helpful to me.
I edit my own work. Writing is a spectacle. Editing is the clean up crew. Treating every flaw as a dead body covered with my finger prints and branded with my address. Erasing all signs of death so I won't get caught by simple stupidity and arrogance. Though, when you are a lone wolf tackling every job that it takes to hide mass grave site, some bodies are going to get left behind. Bad punctuation, incomplete sentences, too many loose sentences and good ol' bad writing become fissures on my foundation. I end up beating my head on my desk wanting to realize the arsonist in me. Then again, delete would suffice.
I've been an editor and wouldn't want my name in the credits in the stories that I have edited. It's like cleaning someone else's crime scene making you an accomplice.
I still need to hone in my skills. Till then: Judge me not by my actions, but on my intentions.
1402740
So when did fan fiction—something that we do for fun and enjoyment—take on this cut-throat life of market place antics and politics? Surely it isn't for a fifteen minute spotlight on EqD, or the feature box. I'm not naive enough to believe that. And while the argument about "marketability" is somewhat plausible, it's also double edged. It means that we as writers here are forced to cater to the demands of what's trending; say for example shipping, Button's Mom, and Discord's Daughter "Eris."
It's all well and good to have a nifty picture, a well thought out description, and the right tags; but unless I toss in some possible and/or sex in my stories, it will get bottomed out under the massive influx of titles.
I also do not understand what a pre-reader has to do with community involvement, aside from shoulder rubbing and bragging rights. Correct me if I'm wrong; but a pre-reader is more or less a sounding board as to whether a story is going to be good or well received. Maybe a, like you said a voice against bad character dev'ing, or for brainstorming. But is that really in all honesty an essential part of the process? Is what works for one person supposed to be a mandatory high mark for all? As a pre-reader, Tolkien told C.S. Lewis that his Narnia books were never going to fly; because no one wanted to read a book with talking animals. Never mind the fact that Tolkien has talking trees, orcs, trolls, and giant eagles in his own.
My "ugh" is simple. I don't despise pre-readers per say; I despise the fact that they are seen as an essential tool to the writing process, to which I blow a hearty raspberry. I could give my story to a hundred people, and have them sit down and read over it, and at the end of the day, it's "my way, or the highway." They can tell me all day long that my joke about Vinyl Scratch using a sleeping human's hand to help get herself off isn't funny, or in character, but it's just a suggestion.
A lot of what seems to be happening, is that pre-readers are actively looking for something that needs to be changed; just like editors. How refreshing it is to get back a chapter of a manuscript and told, "I didn't have to fix anything. Carry on."
Now, please bear in mind, that while I have no use for a pre-reader, it doesn't mean that others may not need that encouragement. I think I've done all right so far. My stories have a huge marginal difference between up-votes versus down-votes, and they all have a good amount of favorites. If I were in the fan fiction for the popularity, I could probably have more than forty-five followers and 2200 views. But I'm too much of a moody anti-social realist; and I don't enjoy hobnobbing in forums talking smack about fics with Filly Fooling, and Equestria Girls. I'm not a member of any groups because I find the conversations there too boring to function, or endless circle-jerking, and I don't follow more people because well, "people."
I'm not trying to be a horse's ass (make that pony's ass). But I think that writers have way more power than they are allowed to know about. Anything that remotely hints at the opposite, I am in opposition to. I don't trust editors, I don't like the idea of pre-readers. But that's me. My choice, my opinion. If my writing suffers because of that, I'd rather it did so because I made all those flawed choices, and not because other people "helped" me into that hole.
1402857
Of course it's not for the feature box or EqD... it's for the eyes that those bring. Most of the writers I talk to, and I talk to a lot of writers, want more people to read their stories (in the hopes that more people will enjoy those stories.) The more stories you write, the more commercial your subjects, the more publicity they receive, and the better they look, the more people will read you.
Now, you can do that by writing clop about Button's Mom... it's worked for some people, though it often backfires (more than once some poor soul has found that the clop they wrote in order to get popular and make people look at their "serious" stories constantly overshadows their serious stories.) But a better method is to just keep your potential audience in mind when writing stories, and do what you can to make sure they see and read those stories. That includes good descriptions, cover art, and advertising that you use editors.
Of course, if you're not looking for more people to enjoy your stories, you can safely ignore all of that. But that makes you a rare bird indeed.
Pre-readers are people, and they're people who are willing to do some work in exchange for considerably less glory than the writer gets (it's also less work, but still.) So if you're looking for one, it helps to be someone who knows and is known to a lot of people who are interested in what you're writing. This is especially true of finding a prereader who you work well with -- I've had eleven different pre-readers at various times, and while many of them have been helpful in different ways, First_Down is the one I really click with. But I probably wouldn't have found First_Down without going through the ten other pre-readers, and I wouldn't have found eleven different people willing to pre-read for me if I hadn't been active around the site. I might have found one or two just by posting to one of the editors groups, but they probably wouldn't have been First_Down.
In my experience, pre-readers serve two purposes:
First is what you mentioned: they act a a primary audience; a sort of dress rehearsal for the work. In this aspect, it's helpful to have more than one, even if some of them aren't very good. None of them are going to be right all of the time, but if three out of three people all independently point out the same line or paragraph, that's a good sign that there's a spot there to think about.
Now, even then that doesn't mean that you change it. It means that if you decide not to change it, you're posting your story aware that people might have a problem with that, and knowing why you left it that way. I don't know about you, but I hate being blindsided by a comment and having to consider the criticism after the fact and whether I might have done that differently if I'd taken another day or week to write it. In this role, pre-readers are there to give you time to consider those things before publication, whether you change them or not.
The second part comes when you find a reader like First_Down is to me. He actually understands what I'm writing better than I do. He can look at a story, and pick out a theme or technique that I didn't even realize that I was using, and 99% of the time it makes perfect sense with how I was envisioning the story. He knows my style, and has pointed out places where what I was doing was technically wrong, but he thought I should leave in because it's my voice. And he always manages to ask the questions I need to answer to really understand what I'm doing with the fic.
So these days, I bring him in on every aspect of the writing process. It's fun and rewarding to talk to someone about your writing who understands it on a deeper level and has a talent for picking out the important things, and it's useful to have these things pointed out while there's still time to add highlights, expand sections, and cut things that work against the theme. (Actually, for some examples of what he does, you could look at the comments he left on my stories Somepony's Daughter and Wisdom is Just Being Old before he started pre-reading. That's about what he does, but now I get those comments before the story is posted.)
So, when you find a pre-reader like that, it's a special kind of relationship (it's probably the reason that a lot of big writers or directors have editors they prefer to work with.) I'd never change something I liked because First_Down suggested it, but I don't think he's ever suggested anything that went against what I wanted to do; he's just suggested ways to do it better.
But then, I do have the stock line that I give all my pre-readers: It's my fic. I get the credit or the blame, so I decide what suggestions to take and which to walk away from.
I do enjoy hearing the suggestions, though.