Earlier this week I was working on a friend\u2019s book: part proofreading, part commenting, part editing. It was a joy because the book is just so very, very good. But it\u2019s also a joy because it\u2019s her first one and yet it\u2019s got none of the stilted caution of a new writer. It\u2019s got none of the hesitancy. <\/p>\n
It does have some of the padding, but you can fix that. <\/p>\n
What this writer has is the benefit of knowing her subject extremely well and having run workshops on it. At her best, this isn\u2019t text on a page, it\u2019s her talking to you, working with you, just as I presume she does in workshops. <\/p>\n
Actually it\u2019s a business non-fiction title and I first met her because she was advising me on aspects of my work. So sometimes I\u2019ll be reading a section and I can see her as she was a couple of years ago, sitting opposite me across a coffee shop table and telling me these same things.<\/p>\n
When you and I are done talking today, I\u2019m off to have a coffee with her again and to enthuse about her book.<\/p>\n
But there is something else I\u2019ll do. There\u2019s something else I\u2019ve realised. This skill of writing like you\u2019re talking is superb but it also has to be a con. You must look like you\u2019re doing it, you must look like this is all flowing naturally and conversationally, when really it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n
Really it needs to be structured. It can\u2019t actually be like speech because when we talk to someone, our sentences run on for hours. Those sentences make complete sense but when they\u2019re written down, they lose that and become long or confusing.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m telling you what I think you already know and I\u2019m telling myself what I think I\u2019ve long realised but working on this book brought it back to me very strongly. This writer has more verve and skill than I did in my first writings and I hope I\u2019ll convey that to her. Because the next step of moving from conversational to only apparently conversational is going to take a lot of work.<\/p>\n
She can do it or I wouldn\u2019t be saying this to you before going to meet her.<\/p>\n
Plus I\u2019ve already told her the truth by text. \u201cYou know how people give you criticism in shit sandwiches?\u201d I texted her. \u201cThis book is two slices of excellent with a filling of superb.\u201d<\/p>\n
I utterly relished doing this work and I am so looking forward to talking to her about it. I\u2019m just also conscious that I\u2019ve made about seven hundred comments on the manuscript. I think I\u2019ll talk a lot before I show her that bit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Earlier this week I was working on a friend\u2019s book: part proofreading, part commenting, part editing. It was a joy … Continue reading