February 19, 2013
newsweek: A detailed look from White House photographer Pete Souza at Barack Obama, Copy Editor in Chief.  Editor pro tip: Double-spacing makes it a lot easier to edit text.

newsweek:

A detailed look from White House photographer Pete Souza at Barack Obama, Copy Editor in Chief. 

Editor pro tip: Double-spacing makes it a lot easier to edit text.

11:10am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAweWEBp5
(Notes: 758)
  
Filed under: editing youcanthankmelater Obama 
January 14, 2013
millionsmillions: Only in Ireland — which, not coincidentally, is home to the subject of this quiz. Didn’t you know? Editors drink from this bottle regularly.

millionsmillions:

Only in Ireland — which, not coincidentally, is home to the subject of this quiz.


Didn’t you know? Editors drink from this bottle regularly.

4:40pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAwbmdG66
(Notes: 4,170)
  
Filed under: lit editing writers 
March 21, 2012
Stanley Kubrick’s copy of The Shining, note the edits. [via]

Stanley Kubrick’s copy of The Shining, note the edits.

[via]

2:39pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAwILSyS2
(Notes: 461)
  
Filed under: Stephen King Stanley Kubrick lit film editing 
March 11, 2012

inbedwithbooks:

youknowyourealitnerdwhen:

writingforsanityssake:

“If there aren’t any skeletons in a man’s closet, there’s probably a Bertha in his attic.”

“Beauty is in the eye of the editor.”

12:08pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAwHpndUA
(Notes: 297)
  
Filed under: editing lit 
February 13, 2012
austinkleon: Lev Grossman, The Magicians My wife and I had high hopes for this one—we started it at the same time, me on Kindle, her on hardcover—loved the beginning, liked the writing a lot, but by the end, it just wasn’t for us. (I finished, she got about halfway through.) Not for me. That’s a phrase I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It wasn’t for me. I like that phrase because it’s essentially positive: underlying it is the assumption that there is a book, or rather, books, for me, but this one just wasn’t one of them. It also allows me to tell you how I felt about the book without me shutting down the possibility that you might like it, or making you feel stupid if you did like it. It just wasn’t for me. No big deal. And “me” changes, so when you say, “It wasn’t for me,” maybe it’s not for the “me” right now—maybe it’s for future Me, or Me lounging in a beach chair in Jamaica, or Me at fourteen—Me in another universe. Responding to art is so much about the right place and right time. You have to feel free to skip things, move on, and (maybe) come back later. And you have to be okay with saying, “It wasn’t for me.” Filed under: my reading year 2012. This is a very popular phrase with editors, especially for submissions that you admire, but can’t see devoting a year+ of your life to. When that submission hits the bestseller list, all you can do is think, well evidently it was “right” for a lot of people.

austinkleon:

Lev Grossman, The Magicians

My wife and I had high hopes for this one—we started it at the same time, me on Kindle, her on hardcover—loved the beginning, liked the writing a lot, but by the end, it just wasn’t for us. (I finished, she got about halfway through.)

Not for me. That’s a phrase I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. It wasn’t for me. I like that phrase because it’s essentially positive: underlying it is the assumption that there is a book, or rather, books, for me, but this one just wasn’t one of them. It also allows me to tell you how I felt about the book without me shutting down the possibility that you might like it, or making you feel stupid if you did like it. It just wasn’t for me. No big deal.

And “me” changes, so when you say, “It wasn’t for me,” maybe it’s not for the “me” right now—maybe it’s for future Me, or Me lounging in a beach chair in Jamaica, or Me at fourteen—Me in another universe.

Responding to art is so much about the right place and right time. You have to feel free to skip things, move on, and (maybe) come back later.

And you have to be okay with saying, “It wasn’t for me.”

Filed under: my reading year 2012.

This is a very popular phrase with editors, especially for submissions that you admire, but can’t see devoting a year+ of your life to.

When that submission hits the bestseller list, all you can do is think, well evidently it was “right” for a lot of people.

12:15pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAwGMSc6b
(Notes: 39)
  
Filed under: editing publishing 
January 23, 2012
"I have performed the necessary butchery. Here is the bleeding corpse."

— Henry James, after a request by the Times Literary Supplement to cut three lines from a 5,000 word article

10:36am  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/Zd-XAwFEamC-
(Notes: 65)
  
Filed under: Henry James lit writing editing 
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