Tag: writing

The Story of Words

Many hours of the last nine years have been spent pouring my soul into a ghost story, working and reworking it through numerous drafts. My heart is a poet’s heart, my hands dabble in mixed-media arts. I’ve earned a living through a variety of professional customer service careers that required skills in web content managing, marketing, communications, and workplace training.
Last spring, I was on the receiving end of a full edit. It was an amazing and complex experience. I could see how much there was to do, but I was reminded by the editor how much I had accomplished.
When you and I meet, I will probably love your words because they’re yours and you poured your soul into them…. I am going to read your words once through completely before I even begin to edit, so that I can feel your magic and gel with your vision. I will never hesitate to give constructive criticism. I am going to help you gain confidence. And I am going to tell you that you’re amazing while you’re doing all the hard stuff to be even more amazing. I am going to help you find repeated words and articles that need corrected. POV shifts and unconscious stereotypes. Symbols and opportunities.
What fills me with purpose is reading stories and helping authors make a deep connection with their work. We always build some type of relationship along the way; we learn to effectively communicate across email or phone and in comments. Humans are adaptable and writers are always in for the really hard stuff.
Through student development, trades with other authors, and volunteer services to the non-profit organizations in my writing community, I have shaped unique writer/editor relationships. Each experience is a testament to the value of writing to the human condition. This year, I want nothing more than to transform my career into one that focuses on this art. I am a seasoned customer service professional and a skilled editor. This combination means my clients get my undivided attention. I will sleep, eat, and breath the words. Please write!
Kind regards,
Brandy Elizabeth Bell
starscrollediting (at) live.com

Editor’s Insight is Instantly Inspirational

Writers have feelings.

Yes, it may be an obvious statement, but it is an honest one. And the truth is, each feeling we have is just as important as the next–from annoyed (didn’t appreciate the use of alliteration in my blog’s headline?), to confidence to rejection. From author to author.

I came away teary eyed after reading an interview featuring Amy Einhorn (a writer and publisher/editor in NYC).  The interview is in the April edition of Poets & Writers Magazine, Einhorn is questioned by Michael Szczerban (an editor for Simon & Schuster). While I was swept away by the “romance” of having a career in NYC, I was even more inspired by Einhorn’s tenderness toward her authors.  Her personality is engaging and her words were worth sharing:

“What feeling do you want to communicate your authors at the end of your letter?

Encouragement. Editing an author’s work is so incredibly intimate. You’re probably reading it closer than anyone else is going to read it, and your author has now spent a year or two or sometimes four or five working on it.”

 

As an editor and writer, I aim to embody her spirit in my editing career. I get a feeling through my bones from this sentiment and wanted my first blog post for Star Scroll Editing to capture the emotion and power that Einhorn does when talking about her work and her life. Read the interview to get to know this editor and feel inspired!

More about Einhorn: Amy Einhorn Books (at Putnam/Penguin Group USA) is the publisher of The Help by Kathryn Stockett and other books.