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This hasn't received any attention on the other side of the river in almost seven hours, so I've decided to repost it here. If it still hasn't received any attention on the other side by the time I've come back to hatrack, I'll delete it.
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My friend has just asked me to be the copyeditor for a screenplay he's writing. I gleefully accepted since OSC once said something along the lines of "copyediting other writers work is the best experience for aspiring writers."
So just wondering, hopefully from professional writers, especially those with screenwriting experience, if I could get some advice on how to do copyediting to the best of my ability and, if there's anything else involved in the process besides spelling and grammar mistakes (general "correcting"), how not to mess with his work in the process.
He and others have a performance company and he's the main writer so I may be asked to do more copyediting in the future if I do this well enough. Posts: 1138 | Registered: Nov 2005
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Good editing involves a lot more than catching typos and obvious grammar errors. It also includes editing for style, usage, voice, and audience appropriateness. If you're serious about editing, get yourself an appropriate style guide and a good dictionary and use them regularly. Don't change something unless you can articulate why it should be changed. You should probably start with comma and apostrophe rules.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Also, editing fiction takes more than editing anything else (in my opinion). Read some of what Orson Scott Card has said about being a wise reader. When you edit fiction, you need to watch for places where the dialogue stumbles, where the description is redundant, where the author is unclear, etc.
Rule #1, though, of good editing is "Do no harm." Let the author's voice shine through, and don't change things unless they absolutely must be changed. Where they must be changed, though, do not hesitate to do so.
Posts: 1903 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I tried to look for places where dialect was not consistent. Also, especially in a fantasy (as his book is), you have to watch for consistency of names, places, and objects, since many are made-up, and the author might forget that he already had a name for that object.
Also, check for redundancy and that 'facts' are not exclusively revealed through dialogue.
Posts: 206 | Registered: Jun 2005
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It works to do "passes" in which you go through the whole piece and check for a few things each time. Start with the higher level stuff like overall organization, thematic consistency, etc. Next, move down to the paragraph- and sentence-levels, and finally down to the level of misspellings, bad punctuation, and typos. Do your passes in that order, giving higher priority to the higher levels. As in, if you edit at the higher levels and don't get time to proofread, that's still better than first proofreading the sucker to death but missing some big organizational flaws.
It really helps to keep a running style guide as you go. Jot down how a word or name is spelled or capitalized, or how a section is indented or how a certain level headline is formatted. Make sure everything stays consistent throughout.
Be sure to consult with the author beforehand about the level at which he or she wants you to rewrite and revise and otherwise tinker with the copy. If little revision is wanted, don't do a bunch. You can make polite suggestions, but don't be invasive. Even if they give you the go-ahead to tear the thing apart, take that with a grain of salt. Chances are they've invested more into the draft they've given you than they're letting on, and ripping it apart will be an insult. My rule of thumb is to offer suggestions instead of blatantly rewriting, and make it clear that they can use them or ignore them.
And as the illustrious Jon Boy and Brinestone have said above, do everything you can to preserve the author's voice. Don't change anything just because you can. Respect the author's style and usage unless it's just incorrect.
Finally, never ever turn an edit into a slamfest. Don't ever write rude comments on the manuscript even for really stupid errors. You will regret them later. Be exceedingly polite at all times and remember that the author is intelligent despite the errors and will respond better to positive reinforcement followed by encouragingly-put suggestions.
Posts: 5957 | Registered: Oct 2001
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