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A Responsibility to Good Writing

Growing up, I changed my mind about what I wanted to be when I grew up as often as I
was asked about it. Since the time I was five, my answers have included doctor, actor, Olympic
skier, firefighter, and (most briefly of all) clown. As I grew older and entered into college, my
tastes started to narrow, and I recognized that I was drawn to the literary world. Writing has long
been a hobby of mine for a long time, but it wasnt until college that I realized my desire to be a
writer. Pursuing that interest further, I discovered a second love: editing. I feel a natural
inclination toward editing because of my desire to produce good writing.
During my time at BYU, I have been involved in multiple creative-writing classes. I have
enjoyed these classes and the chances theyve given me to improve my prose and find my voice
in writing. I have been able to practice the fundamentals of story building and characterization
and have learned how to fix problems in my own manuscripts. However, while taking these
classes, Ive been surprised by how much Ive enjoyed working with my fellow students to help
them do the same. We would come together in workshop groups to give and receive critiques of
our work. I found that it was immensely enjoyable to give feedbackmore so than I would have
expected, considering that I was working on someone elses writing, not my own.
For a long time, Ive worried that this enjoyment was inappropriate. After all, another
hobby of mine is watching and mocking poorly made movies, so I was afraid that I enjoyed
critiquing writing for similar reasons. Was I selfishly judging my classmates writing like some
playground bully, pushing others down to bring myself up?
Fortunately, I was taking editing classes concurrently with my writing classes, which
helped me to identify the real reasons behind my enjoyment. As an editor, it is my responsibility
to do whatever I can to make the writing the best it can possibly be. In my workshops, I realized

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that I didnt merely point out perceived flaws in the writing. Rather, my classmates and I worked
together to offer suggestions of how to improve a piece. We proposed modifications to the plot,
scenes, or character work that would strengthen the authors work as a whole.
In doing soWhen modifying the authors work, we had to be sure to not give greater
importance to our opinions than to the authors opinions. In my classes, Ive learned that even
though our responsibility is to the book, editors cannot bypass the author. We need to work with
authors to help them achieve their visions for the completed piece. Faith Sale described her
position as an editor as being the authors best reader and said, What I mean to do is help the
author realize the authors intentions. She went on to describe the editing of fiction as an
organic process in which the author and editor work together, deepening and enriching what
already exists. The author and I might come up with a number of possibilities for the shape of a
book or a chapter or a scene, for the behavior of a character, for the turns of a plot. But in the end
neither of us may rememberor carewhich one suggested the solution that appears in the final
version (Gross 26970).
Sales explanation is a perfect summary of the relationship that should form between
author and editor, and Ive enjoyed working this way. In many of my writing classes, Ive sat
with classmates who were stuck on a scene or characters progression and didnt know how to
move forward. Some of my best memories are those moments when, walking through it together,
I was able to walk through the work with the author and help an author find a solution that
excited the author and opened up new directions to take their work in. As fun as it is to be the
one writing and making discoveries, it is often just as rewarding to be the one prompting those
discoveries.

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Of course, everything Ive talked about so far has been mainly concerned with
substantive editing. A copyeditor will not be expected to suggest the direction of a treatise on
physics.Although copyediting will often require less input on my end , editing on all levels
requires that I work with, not against, the author to produce the best version of the work possible.
My most significant copyediting experience has been with my father. In 2013, my father
wrote a short book describing efficient teamwork in the office. The book was aimed at team
leaders and business owners who wanted to improve their employees productivity. After
completing his book, my father sent me finished manuscript to copyedit, typically sending me
individual chapters to tackle one at a time. I made all my edits with track changes on Microsoft
Word, so communication was especially easy back and forth.
Though I had yet to be introduced to The Copyeditors Handbook, looking back, I realize
that I incorporated many of the practices outlined therein. For example, the books subject matter
was outside of my specialties, so I was largely ignorant of the meanings of various words or how
certain concepts related to one another. I often found myself using queries (though I didnt know
they were called that at the time) when I wanted to make a change but wasnt sure whether it was
correct given the circumstance.
One such instance was the use of the word scrum. This word was completely new to
me, and though it was the subject of the book, I had no idea how to treat it. Sometimes it was
capitalized, sometimes it wasnt. I tried researching it, but sources failed to agree on whether to
capitalize it or not. Eventually, I decided that the best option was to have my father decide and
wrote him a query, asking him what he would prefer.
On another occasion, I realized that my fathers writing frequently used the genderneutral he. I realized that to go through and change every use of he without explanation

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would be inappropriate. As I would later learn in The Copyeditors Handbook, it is the editors
responsibility to call the authors attention to any mechanical changes that may be controversial,
[and to] query any mechanical revisions that might affect the meaning of the sentence (Einsohn
40). Though I hadnt yet been taught this principle, I made sure to communicate the issue with
my father about the gender-neutral he. As Sale said before, I helped my father realize his
intentions in writing. In this case, my father wanted to help as many people as he could to
improve their productivity in the workplace, so I showed him how to create unbiased writing that
would appeal to the largest audience and helped him to make the changes himself.
Editing has come naturally to me. I dont mean to say that Im naturally skilled at it,
because Im not. As Ive taken more classes and learned more about the process, I become more
aware of ways Ive failed in the past or ways in which I could have done better. There are many
rules that I frequently forget, and I cant edit without a copy of The Chicago Manual of Style
close by. What I do mean is that the desire to edit has come naturally. I read a work and instantly
want to help it get better, to be the best form of itself it can be. I want to be a part of the process
that makes refined art from rough drafts. I want to make good writing.

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Works Cited
Einsohn, Amy. The Copyeditors Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate
Communications. University of California Press, 2000. Print.
Sale, Faith. Editing Fiction as an Act of Love. Editors on Editing. Gerald Gross. New York:
Grove Press, 1993. 267279. Print.