Wednesday, February 3, 2010

You get what you ask for. . . . . .

Post 294!

I am such a dolt sometimes. While I may be a story teller, the English language and English grammar are not my friends. It is not second nature to me and when I write something, anything, for that matter it needs to see a red pen. I have tried to find someone who would trade me red-line edits for content and plot edits for years now.

In desperation I went to an online group and asked for a red-line edit for a short story I needed an edit for. I sent it off and then a few days later I got it back in all its red lined glory. I thanked the editor and went to work on it. Through the edit I was sometimes feeling confused. Some of the comments they made made me say huh? But still thinking that I was the one who knew much less then they did I believed that the edits were what I needed. So last night after the edit was finished I printed the seven page story off and took a second look.

Boy was I wrong. The story acording to the editor is a mess. There is punctuation where I know it doesn't belong. They removed words that were needed, and added things that let me know that the editor didn't have a clue about the "story". I was disapointed but I know that I can go back and fix what is wrong with the story before the deadline. I will be fine and I have definately learned my lesson.

I will trust my friends before I send domething to a stranger again. Lesson leanred.
Life experience: 1 Story: 0

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boy, that would be frustrating! I'm sorry. =[

Angie said...

Yeah, that's a hard lesson to learn. I hope you can get it all fixed up!

Mel Chesley said...

We're not always so lucky to find a total stranger who knows what they are doing. I understand what you mean though! I've had a few offer editing suggestions that made me wonder just where they went to school. ;)

Tampa BookWorm said...

I would so love to find a job editing. Do you have any idea where I could look??