For this first post, I figured it would be appropriate to explain two things: the reason why an editor would think of having a blog on his website and the brief history of a young editor. I’ll explain the second topic first and lead into the other.
When I first began my career in college, I wanted to be an engineer. Then, I wanted to be a historian. Even after my first creative writing class, I didn’t even want to be a writer, let alone an editor. Yet, in the back of my mind, I’ve always wanted to run a magazine similar to Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine with a different style. It wasn’t until my editing and publishing class, though, that I realized a) I wanted to get my degree in English and b) I wanted to spend my time helping other people take their pieces and make them presentable.
Editing, to me, is an art that takes a strong knowledge and understanding of our language. There are so many nuances in English that no one person could ever know. Yet, as an editor I hope to have a very firm grasp on those nuances in order to help those people that come to me with questions or concerns about their writing. I focused most of my attention in school on my own writing, as my own hope is to further my career as a writer at the same time that I further my career as an editor. Both are equally as important to me, because they co-exist in my mind. As I see what others write, and I see what other authors have to offer the world, then I see where my own writing fits, and I see where my own writing fails.
When I graduated, I was lucky to have landed a job as the associate editor for a small press over the summer. I’ve learned a great deal from my time there, and I believe that I will continue to learn much from the industry through Carnifex and its owner, Armand. I have also learned a great deal about what I excel at when it comes to editing and writing.
I have always had a knack for language and the ways in which it can be manipulated to the advantage of the writer and the reader. I have also had a distinct respect for the many levels of grammar and syntax and – much to the chagrin of my colleagues – have since begun to quickly and concisely edit just about everything that passes before me. Yet, it is something that people seek when they have something important they need read by others, and so I have become that person that everyone comes to when they have a question or a concern. So I decided to do things on my own and do what I do best.
So why the blog? There are many questions that amateur authors have. There are even more questions that people who want to be authors have. It is my hope that I might plainly put to ‘paper’ the answers so that people might find what they’re looking for. Even if I never see business from that person, to hear that I helped them on their path towards getting published – or even to finish the story they’d been dying to finish – will be good enough for me. A blog is meant to be informative. Thus, I will seek to answer questions that I know I had when I first began to submit my work to publishers and the answers I found when I began working on the other end of things.
If you have questions, ask, and I will do my best to answer. I am not a seasoned veteran, but I know the trouble that fledgling writers go through, and there are too many people who simply cast them aside as if they’re nothing more than cannon fodder. Young and new authors are the future of writing, and it makes no sense to me to push them aside and hope they go away. If I can make it easier for you to get your story out there, then let my blog be the guide. I look forward to further posts and the comments I might receive.
