Great seeing everyone on Tuesday. The progress on your stories is exciting. We’re seeing characters and narratives and tone and voice and telling details. Of course, plenty of work remains but this is the fun part (or at least it’s good to tell yourself that). Go back for that repeat interview. Change structure if needed. Dig for more details and characters. Read your stories out loud for rhythm. Everything we talked about during Owen’s visit last week.
For Next Week:
- By now, you should have received Owen’s editorial feedback and my thoughts (unless you’re re-filing to incorporate his). If you want to discuss more, shoot me an email. Either way, file a revised version of your story to me and a classmate by next Tuesday at 2 PM. I’m sending the classmate pairings in an email.
- By next Thursday, April 26th, write an edit note to your partner and cc: me on the email. For format, follow either Jenn Kahn’s approach (if you take her class and prefer that) or something similar to what Owen laid out. I’ve included his primer at the bottom of this post.
- Choose which option you’d like for next week’s class time. If you’d prefer to talk on Tuesday, send me a time slot that works between 9 AM and noon and we’ll plan on it. If you prefer Friday, I’ve secured an office space – B42A – from 1 PM to 4 PM. I’ll be there, ready to pump you full of optimism, or workshop your story, or talk about anything you wish we’d covered this semester. If you all want to come at the same time, we can workshop the stories together or I can incorporate some revision/lively writing elements into a mini-lesson, as now is the time to focus on that. I’ll be there either way.
- The deadline for your final project is Tuesday, May 1st at 10 AM, before our last class.
Editing Process, courtesy of Owen Good
1) Make a first read, very thorough. Don’t edit the story per se, but jot down reactions as they happen in a notepad file to the side. The first gut feeling on something is often going to be the truest, and closest to how an ordinary reader may react.
2) Second read: Go back to the major points of emphasis.
- Ask, OK, what have we left out?
- Revisit the specific anxieties that the writer has expressed (weakness of a character, a thin spot where the information isn’t as robust as hoped, etc.)
- Evaluate how feasible it is to address these weaknesses, and suggest alternative approaches if you straightforward means (quotes, details we hoped to get but couldn’t) can’t solve it.
3) Third read: This is where I copy edit, but more likely I am tightening.
- This can be delicate as I do not want to change the writer’s voice
- But tightening is more than being a stickler. Tight writing communicates at least as much authority, confidence and expertise as the reporting and scenes it presents. In fact, the most thoroughly reported story can be undone by tentative or heavily qualified copy.
- I want the writer to believe in themselves and in the truth of what they’ve done at all times.
4) The notes to the writer.
- This is where I show my work, not only as a professional courtesy, but because it also helps me articulate my reactions to this story in a concise and respectful way.
- Often times, I’ve been presented with a really good, really sellable story that works, but the writer, having spent so much time with it, is unsure if she’s really done something good. This is where I take the time to buck her up with some solid, concrete reasons why it’s good.
- Format the note as follows: 1) Big picture and positive parts of the work 2) specific elements you liked, didn’t get, want more on, think need addressing 3) suggestions for alternative methods or ways of thinking, if applicable 4) final, considered thoughts
5) Communication is very important
- What do you want to hear from an editor?
- What would you feel obligated to say to a writer, as their editor?
Storytelling Through Sports 