(Not) Weekly Roundup

Here it is: the (not) weekly roundup of links to stories and news for writers. If you find a story online that you think other writers in the group might like, be sure to send it to me (kathlyon at gmail dot com).

Weekly Roundup: The Craft and Business of Writing

Constance Hale wraps up  her New York Times series on writing with The Voice of the Storyteller.

Open Culture shares Kurt Vonnegut's Eight Tips on How to Write a Good Short Story.


In her Writers Don't Cry column, Susan J. Morris reminds us that "it's important to understand the tricks—and the traps—of first person narration."  

Morris also offers a few choice words on the powerful effect of punctuation and resisting the almost irresistible appeal of exclamation points, elipses, and em dashes.

And, Ben Yagoda explains why your editor may have been wrong to remove the comma following a sentence opening conjunction.

Children's book writer and editor Nina Hess reminds us that nerves and neuroses exist on both sides of the red pen.

Baltimore Sun editor John E. McIntyre points out the pitfalls of putting marketability before editing and answers the question of who is best equipped to tell an author she has spinach in her teeth.

—Kathy Lyon

What Does an Editor Do?

It seems like a simple question—what does an editor do? But there are many kinds of editing and lots of editorial titles (developmental, line, copy editor). 


The one thing all editors have in common is that they stand in for the reader, working with the author and the publisher to make sure the final text conveys the author's message as clearly and as seamlessly as possible. Good editing does not obscure or alter the author's voice. At the same time, good editing means that readers are not startled out of the story into an awareness of the text itself, whether by a sudden inconsistency in tone or by an unusual usage that does not serve the story or simply by numerous misspellings and grammatical errors. 

To keep things simple—and because many of us are working on novels or memoirs—I'll focus only on the stages of book editing for fiction and creative nonfiction.