When I’m feeling whimsical – and what better time than the run up to Christmas to feel whimsical? – I get together a bunch of quotes from a famous author and see what they had to say about my day-to-day life – running my editorial business. Turns out Benjamin Franklin and William Shakespeare knew a thing or two about it!
So I was casting around for another rich source of quotes. Dickens, surely? Nope, not very quotable, at least not on pithy editorial-leaning matters. Aha! I’m currently rereading Philip José Farmer’s Riverworld series so, yes, Mark Twain (Sam Clemens is a major character in the books) wouldn’t let me down! Definitely pithy and opinionated!
So off I toddle to a quotes site to gather up some juicy material. And then I toddle off to Quote Investigator to check them out, as not one of the quotes I collected gave chapter and verse on the source.
And of the sixteen quotes that seemed apposite, fifteen were definitely not correctly attributed to Twain (nor were they attributed, evidenced, to anyone else), and one might be OK – or not. Someone claimed he’d said it to her, privately.
Now you understand my title.
Nevertheless, some of these quotes are utterly sound advice for editorial freelancers, so let’s look a few of them anyway (don’t worry, I’m not using all sixteen!).
On doing the work
#1 The secret of getting ahead is getting started
If you’ve read any of my blog posts or social media posts ranting against the tyranny of perfection, you’ll know that I consider the pursuit of perfection one of the major causes of procrastination, whether you’re an editor or, indeed, an author. Whether it’s undertaking some training, or settling down to an edit that doesn’t particularly appeal, you just have to get started, or you’ll be chasing your tail, building your stress, missing your deadlines or turning in substandard work to hit the deadline. Eeuwwww.
#2 Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please
Learn the conventions of the type of work you’re editing, and the current conventions of grammar and syntax (note that I don’t use that awful word ‘rules’). Arm yourself with the appropriate style guide. You’ll be able to defend your edits, and you’ll also know when to leave well alone and not fall prey to the dreaded zombie rules.
#3 You can’t depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus
This is the argument against relying entirely on self-editing, or hiring one person to do all the editing tasks, from critique to proofreading, or even just the copyediting and proofreading both, on your text.
When you’re familiar with a piece of text – and authors will be painfully familiar with text they’ve been working on (and reworking) for sometimes years, and usually months – you will end up ‘reading’ what you remember intending to say.
Editors will also get that way when they’ve been over and over a piece of text, so you really do need separate editors and proofreaders. However, trained editors (and proofreaders) have also developed techniques to help combat this, and there are some software tools we have available to us, too, to boost that.
But there’s nothing quite like a fresh pair of eyes on the text to root out problems.
#4 ‘I cannot stop some dreadful things I try to stop, but I go on in the hope and trust that the time will come.’ — Our Mutual Friend, Charles Dickens
Yes! Dickens didn’t entirely let me down! Editors are always fighting to improve text, and we do a fine job for the most part. But we aren’t the last people in the chain – our work goes back to the author, to the publishing house, to the typesetter and to the printer, and things happen to the text after it has left our hands for the final time.
This is why many editors have a policy of declining being included in the acknowledgements for books. We have no idea what has happened to the text since we last saw it.
Wrong files get sent to the printer (as happened to the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading’s honorary vice president, Susie Dent, in 2020). Weird stuff that isn’t properly explained happens (doesn’t it, Omid Scobie?).
On learning, CPD and embedding good practice
#5 Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection
I love this one! Well, I love it within reason. Most of us learn best by doing. New skills need practice. Practice-with-reflection is a large part of the route to excellence (I do dislike ‘perfection’ – an impossible standard).
But there’s a judgement to be made about how far along the path of improvement you are before you take on paid work. If you want repeat work from clients, I’d suggest that you get a fair bit of practice under your belt first. The best thing about this quote (even if we don’t know where it originated) is that it’s about continuous improvement. No resting on one’s laurels, no matter how experienced one is. I’ve blogged for the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading on this.
On running business and paying your suppliers
#6 The lack of money is the root of all evil
This reworking of 1 Timothy 6:10 is a stark reminder to clients to pay their freelancers well, and to pay their invoices quickly! Unlike salaried folk, freelancers aren’t paid routinely each month, and to live their lives they need to be fairly and promptly recompensed for their work without being made to rely on a perpetual overdraft because their invoices haven’t been paid on time. Just sayin’.
#7 Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great
This is the possibly genuine quotation from Mark Twain. If you’re thinking of a career change from whatever you’re doing now to setting up as a freelance editor or proofreader, and there are naysayers in your life, keep this one in mind.
And perchance you find yourself suggesting to someone that they get back in their box, maybe keep it in mind then, too.
So it just remains to say Merry Christmas to those who celebrate it, happy holidays to everyone else, and may 2024 smile upon us all.
