Chuck Israels wrote:
About Carl Dershem's suggestion that my autobiography ought to be a
great read: a few summers ago, I wrote about 200 pages of a spew draft
of a "memoir," showed it to a few people and then left it to sit for a
(long) while. Now it looks about 40 to 50% pertinent and maybe 60%
silly personal stuff that is of interest to no one but me, and me not
so much on a distanced re-reading. I think it needs a lot of taking
the personal stories and incidents and putting them in a larger context
of the the culture of the time. Then it might be a good book. That's
a lot of work, and I don't know when I'll get inspired to do that.
It's much harder (and probably more important) than just reviewing my
experience. A good and interested editor would probably help.
Chuck
A good editor is worth their weight in gold, or chocolate, or something
like that. Just finding the right direction for a book, and the right
style to tell the stories in can make all the difference. Doing that,
while allowing (encouraging) you to keep your own 'voice' is an
increasingly rare (and increasingly valuable) skill.
Too many editors now are just copy-editors: They check spelling and
grammar and some continuity, but as for guidance ... not so good.
cd
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