Subject: Yes, on the whole, the second one is how I feel.
Author:
Posted on: 2013-02-19 00:22:00 UTC

I am a firm believer in constructive criticism, and do not think ripping a story to shreds and laughing at the remains is the proper way to tell a writer how to correct their stories. However, as an editor, I am infamous for being very direct with my criticism. Not mean or rude, mind you, but direct. I don't sugar coat much of anything, and I make sure the author understands what is wrong and why I think it should be changed. I once got in trouble for editing a foreign exchange student's story in a creative writing class. Her spelling was fine, but her grammar and phrasing left much to be desired. The sentences were understandable, but were phrased and structured incorrectly. When I showed her the edits I made, I told her to make sure she finds a good editor, one who would not be afraid to tell her she is wrong, even though she is from a foreign country and english is her second language. How is she going to learn how to do it right if she never sees when she was wrong? She was thankful, but one of my other classmates chewed me out for being 'inconsiderate.' "If it makes sense," he said, "then just leave it alone!" While in the end we agreed to disagree, it showed me that I thought, occasionally, you need to see the truth about what you wrote, no matter how much others don't want to see it. So occasionally, I think a charge list is helpfull for authors to know what exactly they did wrong, so they can learn how to fix it.

/end rant. Good greif, sometimes I just chatter on and on for no reason. Oh well.

Reply Return to messages