Editing Club

[Ginger Herten]

So, I was thinking maybe we start a volunteer editing club on this forum. Writers could post raw stories up to a section of this forum and request editing. They could even specify if they wanted help only with grammar, or if they were also open to content recommendations, and to what degree.

I gave up trying to always get my stories edited before submitting a while ago. In large part, because at a certain point it became obvious that the burden of it was falling on a small group of reliable people, and it started to feel like I was imposing.

We do it as forum threads, and people can just stop by and do a little editing when hey have a spare moment, so posting never feels like a demand. Authors can get varying opinions (which will probably sometimes be bad, but nothings perfect.) Authors aren’t stuck waiting to hear back from someone who said they’d be happy to edit, but is taking forever, wondering if they should just be patient or pester one of their more reliable editors. And it eliminates the need to give out an email address.

Thoughts?

[AB]

I like this idea, but I’m honestly not sure how much time I could commit to this. (I also do a ton of paid editing work and this is supposed to be more of a fun sandbox area for me.) I might be able to give something a quick once-over to say something like “your paragraphs are too long” or “there’s too much denouncement after the haircut” but I’m not sure this wouldn’t just create more of a burden on the site’s stronger writers.

[klaatu48]

This is purely semantics, but maybe refer to the section as “Critique” rather than editing? Only speaking for myself, that makes me think of input on the writing and structure, rather than just grammar, and people might be more open to taking part if they feel they’ll get high-level feedback.

If we say it’s for editing and spellchecks, some people might be too proud to take part, you know?

(I’ll be frank — my own impatience might hold me back from posting stories to it, but I’d be happy to take part on some level since I love playing with words. Like AB, I do it professionally, though, so it wouldn’t be an everyday thing for sure… not that the call for it would be THAT great.)

So, to sum up — I think it’s a great idea; we just need to get people to buy in. It’s clear these forums aren’t highly trafficked, so publicizing it would be job one.

[AB]

That’s a good point. I’m definitely not line editing anything that gets posted. I charge actual money for that. 😉

[totallyhairless]

I would be happy to help out occasionally as I would to vet stories in the first place. Vetting is more complicated in that it would depend on the website’s criteria for acceptance or refusal but ‘critique’ involving a basic spell and grammar check wouldn’t be too onerous (other than for those authors who insist on not using paragraphs)

[AB]

I’ve legit sent editing assignments back to people with a note along the lines of “I think there must be something wrong with your file—surely you can’t have meant to send me four pages that were all one paragraph?” That wall of text is really tough to get through.

Of course
So are
The pieces
That just have
Random line breaks
Like it’s fucking T.S. Eliot
With a hair fetish

[Ginger Herten]

A big part of why I thought this might work as part of the forum, was so that people only ever spent as much time at it as they felt like without pressure. I certainly didn’t envision it becoming the second jobs of the handful of professional editors who happen to frequent the forum, I can see how that might end up happening though.

[Ginger Herten]

AB
Participant
I’ve legit sent editing assignments back to people with a note along the lines of “I think there must be something wrong with your file—surely you can’t have meant to send me four pages that were all one paragraph?” That wall of text is really tough to get through.

Of course
So are
The pieces
That just have
Random line breaks
Like it’s fucking T.S. Eliot
With a hair fetish

I’m ded

[HSN Admin]

Hi GH, I totally agree that this would help the site. I’ll get back to you separately to get this sorted

[AB]

I aim to please, Ginger!

[Author]

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