Edited and butchered...

Jump in a time machine with me for a few lines:

March, 1988...I had been writing bulletin articles for roughly 5 years - what an impressive resume for a writer :).

An issue came along that I had a lot of passion about and I wrote three articles and submitted them to Words of Truth, a paper of some renown in Alabama. A few weeks went by and I got a very nice letter from the editor of the paper stating they were going to run my article and that I might want to look over their format for submissions information which was enclosed. For the next few weeks I couldn't wait for the little paper to come out, I'd rush to the mailbox. The anticipation was almost too much. Then it arrived! I saw my name on the front page - wow! I called Melanie, Missie, Jeff, mom, dad, my elders, the fellow who read our water meter - everyone I could think of...I'm sure I bragged and I'm sure it was ungodly and I'm sure I sounded like someone who had had an article published for the first time in their life. But all that was true, so what else should I have sounded like? In the enclosed letter the editor of the paper encouraged me to continue writing that "writing makes a precise man" - of something that some famous dead guy had said.

THEN I finally actually looked at my article. "They" changed it, edited it, butchered it1 Actually they had taken the first paragraph out (it was one of my favorites) and done some serious (and I'm sure now) and helpful editing. Oh I was mad. I did not want to be edited...changed,...butchered...I wrote it how I wrote it...I liked the way it sounded...those are my words, I birthed them (as if I ever had an original thought - but just in case I did I didn't want anyone messing with them!).

That was over a million words ago in my writing life. Early on Melanie and I had some pretty serious unscheduled discussions when she would try to edit me. For years I fought every suggested change regardless of the authority or credibility of said changers. I would run kicking and screaming to defend every period, comma, and dangling participle! I would refuse some changes - "they can edit but its still my writing so I don't have to take all their suggestions." "That may be correct but this how I'd say it...", I'd defend.

In February my son Philip had his fist work published. His is two chapters in an excellent new book called "Boys to Men". Earlier this week he got around to actually reading the chapters as they appear. Here is the text message he send me: "I'm reading that book I wrote for...wish I could have detarded this thing. They totally butchered some of my stuff."

What's that saying about apples and trees? :)

To this day, I hate being edited. But I have learned that a good and careful editor is a writer's best friend. At GW my stuff would be edited by the very best. Typically least four sets of eyes would check it before it went to press. And those eyes were the best of the best. I used to joke that I would always read my article after it was printed to see what I said. I need serious help when it comes to writing. I make up words, create my own rules of grammar, suspend the ones I don't like and am a SLOW learner.

Yes, I hate being edited - but I sure miss my editors! They always made me look better than I are - oops :).