Becoming a Writer-Editor
How can someone effectively combine writing and editing skills to make a good living? By establishing what I call a “hyphenated career”: becoming a writer-editor!
Combine Writing and Editing Skills
In my book The Business of Storytelling, I talk about how to create a writer-editor career, where you use what you learn as a writer to reinforce the editing side of your career and vice versa.
For those of us who enjoy taking on a variety of projects in our work, a hyphenated career can be a source of fulfillment and growth (both personal and career-related). I’ve always said I’m a better editor because I’m a writer, and I’m a better writer because I’m an editor.
The other day, a reader contacted me and said she was a different kind of hyphen: a bookseller-writer. I loved that! Her deep understanding of what readers enjoy reading makes her a better writer, and her understanding of writing and literature makes her a better bookseller.
A friend of mine is a great beta reader/big-picture editor because she’s also a visual artist (“Even painters info-dump,” she says.) I love the idea of there being all kinds of hyphenated careers possible for writers and editors.
In the end, it’s the interplay between your skills that can help you earn more money both as a writer and as an editor.
Tips for Editors & Writers
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Helping authors create strong character arcs
Readers like to see character change, even if the change is small, and even if the change is negative. Often a character will be just the same at the start of the story as at the finish, and generally this is less satisfying to the reader than when a character is confronted with the need…
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How Character Motivations Create Meaning
In my teaching, I focus a lot on helping editors understand how character, plot, and setting work together. These are the tools with which authors build stories. But there’s another we shouldn’t overlook: theme. Readers read stories not merely to find out what happens but to understand what it means. Causes Create Meaning I often…
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Editor Insight: Miranda Darrow
I’ve been talking with newer and more established freelance editors about how they find clients and deal with ups and downs in freelancing. This week’s editor is Miranda Darrow, who has been editing part-time for a little over ten years. Here’s our Q&A: Tell me a little about your background and the kind of editing…
