Editor interview! Shop talk with author Georgia Clark...
Author Georgia Clark is making the jump from writing YA novels to adult fiction with a speculative twist, but made some time for a quick editor interview on writing.
A little backstory: she hired me to read through her fascinating and funny new manuscript, The Regulars, before sending it off to her agent. I loved working on it for so many reasons: Besides making me laugh out loud, its premise is truly thoughtful and inventive, looking at the role of beauty in Western culture. What impressed me at the outset, though, was that in our early e-mails she already knew exactly what kind of edit she was looking for, and used editorial jargon like a pro. It also helped that she came by way of a previous client, the also-fabulous Sweta Vikram---great writers seem to flock together!In short, Georgia and I had an amazing working relationship from the start, and she liked the critique so much she shared it with her agent, who was "so impressed … she’s started recommending her to her other clients." That's amazing praise in my business.Here are some highlights from an interview she did with me about the craft of writing and revision, or check out the full interview here.
Q. Do you have a general philosophy for how you approach your editing work?A. My guiding light for how to edit has been to offer the kind of feedback that is helpful to me as a writer. To get better, you need to use your strengths to improve your weaknesses. If all you hear is criticism, it’s crippling. I try to put myself in the author’s shoes first, and imagine what brought him or her to the page day after day for years. Writing a novel is mentally brutal—unless you’re insane, there has to be something urgent and beautiful that lures you back. Once I am looking at a story’s merits, I can use them as a starting place for exploring the parts of a writer’s craft that are lacking. Q. What’s the one thing most novelists don’t understand about the art of revision?A. That spit polishing a manuscript isn’t enough. If superficial changes are truly all a novel needs, then the editor who does it won’t be me: he or she will be the acquiring editor for a publishing house, and you will have already found an agent.Usually, revision means re-seeing your novel. Fiction is unified: theme, plot, characterization, voice, and world-building are indivisible. Although in workshops we talk about them as separate skills, the interface between them is volatile. This is why changing from first to third person or past to present tense alters the feel of a story so much—often, everything has to change to accommodate it; how your character develops, how much ground a scene can cover, and so forth.Opening pages are also a more significant revision than many writers realize. It goes back to what I said about readers’ expectations looming around the first page. If you change that page, you meet the reader on a different ground, and how you engage with their expectations in the next few chapters will be different, as well.
As far as an editor interview goes, this one covered a lot of ground--so be sure to check out the full text on Georgia's site (And keep an eye out for more news on The Regulars!)