A few links for a Sunday night

[meredith_shayne]

This is a great post on the editing process, which also makes me laugh. Mainly because when I am editing (in- and outside of the day job), I jump straight to the second type of editing comments described in that post, the "less polite" ones. See, in my day job, those sorts of comments are the polite ones – you learn pretty quickly when you start doing what I do that if the comment is not in all caps, bolded and underlined (with or without several exclamation marks), then you've gotten off pretty lightly.

Sad, but true. We're a pack of thick-skinned buggers in my department, let me tell you. We have to be, otherwise we'd never last.


Speaking of editing, here's a useful post on self-editing. I'm a huge fan of self-editing, a HUGE fan. It makes my editing life a lot easier, and I love anything that makes my life easier. Plus, it's a useful skill – I'd actually go as far as to say that it's an essential skill – for anyone who puts pen to paper and expects to unleash the results on the unsuspecting public.

Comments

[strangemuses.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed reading the Stephanie Perkins post on self-editing (and not just for the cute picture of James McAvoy in a scarf, I swear). Have you ever seen the grammar book, "The Transitive Vampire"? (Or "The Deluxe Transitive Vampire"?) It's an excellent and amusing reference.

[meredith-shayne.livejournal.com]

The "Self-editing for Fiction Writers" book that she namechecks is bloody fantastic. I got it from the library and then went and bought it, it was that good.

I haven't heard of that grammar book, but it sounds interesting. I might see if I can get my hands on it.