Editing Out Loud - a Fast Track to Better Writing
Alicia Sammons I worked as an editor for the better part of my too long professional career. Editing can be demanding, but I never thought of it as a particularly glamourous or creative calling. Over the years I climbed my way up from proofreader to senior editorial positions on magazine, major metropolitan newspapers, and editing for independent publisher. I always felt in awe of writers and aspired to their magic with words, an assessment shared in popular culture. We see a lot of juicy movies about authors like The Hours and Midnight in Paris. On the other hand, editors can't get much respect even from their writers, including a few authors with whom I've worked. Vladimir Nabokov sneered at them as ‘pompous avuncular brutes.’ Robert Gottlieb edited books of Joseph Heller , John Le Carré , John Cheever , and Toni Morrison . The legendary Maxwell Perkins edited and famously mentored Lost Generation icons F. Scott Fitzgerald ...