Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

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polymath
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by polymath » February 10th, 2011, 12:40 pm

Drop and give me twenty setting, plot, idea, character, event, and discourse warm-up crunches. SPICED.

Take your laps next, description, introspection, action, narration, emotion, sensation, summarization, exposition, conversation, recollection, explanation, transition aerobic writing exercise. DIANE'S SECRET writing modes.

Time then to pump some conflict iron muscles.
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sarahdee
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by sarahdee » February 10th, 2011, 10:55 pm

polymath wrote:Drop and give me twenty setting, plot, idea, character, event, and discourse warm-up crunches. SPICED.

Take your laps next, description, introspection, action, narration, emotion, sensation, summarization, exposition, conversation, recollection, explanation, transition aerobic writing exercise. DIANE'S SECRET writing modes.

Time then to pump some conflict iron muscles.
I'm scared?! You should run writing retreats. Terrify the bejesus out of budding writers but they'd bash out the WIP in double time.

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polymath
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by polymath » February 11th, 2011, 11:07 am

You betcha, sarahdee.

The bootcamp drill instructor mentality of structural, rhetorical, and expressly progymnasmata and declamation writing exercises that predominated in writing from the time of the Sophists passed out of vogue by the middle Twentieth century, thereafter favoring creativity at the expense of form. Form nonetheless remains as essential as creativity for writing success.

"From the time of the ancient Sophists, rhetoric has been a discipline providing exercises to prepare students for speaking and writing.

"Practice speeches have predominated as exercises within the rhetorical tradition, including
  • The progymnasmata, a set of 14 preliminary exercises focused on subsidiary skills needed within a complete speech;
  • And declamations (divided into suasoriae and controversiae), in which students finally practiced composing and delivering complete deliberative or judicial orations.
"Both the progymnasmata and declamation exercises, however, rely upon principles and methods found within the practice of imitation, especially the emphasis upon the rhetorical analysis of literary models. Such close analysis provided students means for learning methods to develop their own material, and by marking and copying out passages they began to glean commonplaces, descriptions, maxims, and figurative language they could apply elsewhere."

Silva Rhetoricae, Rhetorical Exercises
http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Peda ... rcises.htm
Last edited by polymath on February 11th, 2011, 11:42 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Margo
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by Margo » February 11th, 2011, 11:30 am

Ow ow ow! Coach, I think I twisted my gerund! Yeah, I totally sprained it.
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Thinkertinker
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by Thinkertinker » February 11th, 2011, 4:38 pm

Going to a conference is going to give you good tools but scattered knowledge, however sometimes it's the contacts you make that serve you better in the years to come.

A good freelance editor should be able to clean up grammar and punctuation but also show you how to strengthen characters, strengthen plot, and subtle ways of making the story better, pointing up weak spots and troublesome issues. All are suggestions that the writer then takes and uses to improve the story.

These days, because the market is tight, break-in writers need to present to agents/editors with the very best story they can put together. That means style, voice and punctuation as well as plot, character and story overall. Polymath's statements scare me because as a freelance editor I see several stated errors said with the voice of authority, and sometimes all rookie writers will see are the cheap rates.

If you really feel your work is nearly ready to go, then put the conference off for a year and invest in a good editor, one who will help you get your story ready to go, not someone who edits with ego.

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polymath
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by polymath » February 11th, 2011, 5:17 pm

Thinkertinker wrote:Polymath's statements scare me because as a freelance editor I see several stated errors said with the voice of authority, and sometimes all rookie writers will see are the cheap rates.
Please elaborate on what you mean by several stated errors.
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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by oldhousejunkie » February 11th, 2011, 7:31 pm

Thinkertinker wrote:These days, because the market is tight, break-in writers need to present to agents/editors with the very best story they can put together. That means style, voice and punctuation as well as plot, character and story overall. Polymath's statements scare me because as a freelance editor I see several stated errors said with the voice of authority, and sometimes all rookie writers will see are the cheap rates.

If you really feel your work is nearly ready to go, then put the conference off for a year and invest in a good editor, one who will help you get your story ready to go, not someone who edits with ego.
Thinkertinker, I appreciate your thoughts but I think they could have been voiced without attacking other posters who happen to be a well respected members of this forum.

I think any rookie writer understands the importance of putting forward their best work. I think the point of the earlier conversation was to be careful that you don't over polish your work in an attempt to be perfect. But I think we can all agree that basic things such as typos and grammatical errors need to be gone from a submitted manuscript in order to put you above the competition.

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Re: Hiring a Freelance Editor vs. Going to a Conference

Post by lynnfc » February 11th, 2011, 8:24 pm

Both are good and it depends on your greatest need. Personally, I went to
the Mystery Writers Conference last July in Corte Madera last July at a well-known
bookstore. I found I had my chapters edited by one of my thriller writer's heroines,
Katherine Neville. Who would have thought she would be there too? Actually all the big
and famous in mystery writing were there, so I had several chapters edited,not just for
grammar and typos but also for structure and character and logic. It was wonderful. But, on
the other hand having just finished marching through the revising of 16 of my 32 chapters
in my fiction with three critiques every week by a well known best selling novelist instructor
and my writing peers, I am contemplating a similar decision. Well, the next step up in the
UCLA Writer's Program is a mentorship class with the instructor for a month with at least 30
pages a week being edited. I can take that class over and over and at 120 pages a month, that
is a good deal. I get one on one. But, i can still plan on the conference again this summer and be
with all my favorite writers because they like the smaller venues and what better place than in
the San Francisco bay area. Or, I could pay really big bucks and hire a high end editor. I think I'll start
with the mentorships first. Maybe that is to come. And, I can still attend a conference or two.
LynnFC

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