Working with Meike — a social contract

As an engineer, I have a lot more experience working within technical publishing than with fiction. I’ve written, edited and beta read a number of articles, as well as coach people in writing and presenting.

However, increasingly I’ve had people approach me over helping them with their fiction writing. Mostly this has gone really well, but there has been a recent engagement which went really badly. They’d asked me to edit their work, and it soon became obvious they weren’t ready to work with an editor.

I spent about three hours going through their manuscript. Despite me liking their work, I made suggestions for a few pieces of rewording, occasional nudges to the writing, places where additional explanation might be helpful.

I made it really clear these modifications were suggested, but ultimately it was their story, and they could take or leave it. The author thanked me a lot saying I’d been ever so helpful. They then blocked me, and according to a friend of mine, went on a tirade against me on social media, which included threats and a poem against “You Think You Know It All”.

I’d like to avoid going through such an experience again, but also don’t want to put me off ever working with another author again!

Hence here I’m breaking down how I work when I work as an editor on any writing project. If any of this makes you uncomfortable, maybe I’m not the person to work with you.

Rule 1 — There is some material I won’t work with

I suffer from PTSD from some events from my youth. This means some material can be really triggering on me. The most obvious is any material about physical or sexual violence. [So sorry George RR Martin, if you wanted me to work on that next Game Of Thrones novel …]

I likewise won’t work with material which is racist, sexist or homophobic — although I understand in any story there might be characters who display these traits.

I love working with science fiction, fantasy and history settings.

Rule 2 — What feedback do you need from me?

If you don’t answer this question, I’ll just use my disgression.

Generally if you give me a first draft (and IMO you should never let a reader see something that’s on any less than it’s third draft), I will focus more on the story than anything else. Does the story make sense? Are the characters interesting and likeable? Does it feel like there are huge holes?

If you give me a final draft, I’m going to be much more fussy looking for items to make this word polished for publishing.

Rule 3 — My time is limited

I tend to try and work within time boxes. This is a methodology used in the technical business I work in.

I will often try and find a set amount of time, and give you feedback as soon as possible. Sometimes that means I’ll slightly neglect my own work or even some commitments.

I don’t need you to gush me with praise, but please honour the time I’m putting into your work. I’m investing of myself. I won’t invest myself into just anyone.

In line with rule 2, I might use my disgression. I might choose to focus in detail on the first 3 chapters, or I might read end-to-end, and give an overview. Again this will vary according to story and author.

Rule 4 — You are not your manuscript

We invest a lot of time into our manuscript, but remember feedback on the manuscript is not feedback on you.

I’ve been where you are, and I’ve had occasional petty and nasty feedback on my writing. I aim wherever possible to be positive in my feedback, and give you suggestions wherever possible.

My aim is to help you to tell your story in the best possible way. I see us as a team. Mainly I am championing the reader, and might make suggestions which will help the reader follow your narative better.

Examples which have been used on me have included “you introduced this event out of the blue, can’t you foreshadow it much earlier on in the book?”.

By engaging with you in this process (1) I respect you as an individual and want to support you, (2) any feedback is on your story and not on you. My writing both in technical and fiction have benefitted greatly from this kind of feedback to me.

IF THIS MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE, PLEASE DO NOT ASK ME TO EDIT.

As said above, my time is limited and precious to me, so please respect this. If I do not like or respect you, I will be unwilling to spend time on giving you feedback.

[That said, sometimes I am really busy as hell, so if I don’t have time, it doesn’t mean I don’t respect you, it probably means my own work is at a critical point!]

Also please understand, I respect you as a writer, but writers (myself included) need to challenge ourselves to continuous improve. If you are convinced you are a superb writer whose work does not change, you do not need an editor, and you do not need my time.

Rule 5 — How I give feedback

I like to make changes to a document in either Word or Google Docs. I generally work with a mixture of marked changes and comments.

I coach very strongly from a position called kinesthetics — this is helping people to learn by doing. As an ex-teacher, and a world famous facilitator in my field, I’m famous for working like this.

This means sometimes I might make modifications to your manuscript to show how you can consider changing it and it might read. An example from a recent review I did was about the death of a character Jovinda who was a friend to the Main Character (MC). Jovinda’s dying breath was to tell the MC what a great friend she was, and later on the MC got the will from Jovinda, again telling her what a great friend she was.

My suggestion was instead of having Jovinda say this with her last breath (and the repitition), have Jovinda show it with her dying act. So having Jovinda step into a magic lightning bolt intended for the MC as an act of heroic sacrifice. Actions speak louder than words.

I included the small number of changes which would make that work, so the author could see it. Unfortunately the author hated it.

With something like this I’ll usually use a comment to cover why I’ve made the change to help coach the author into my thinking.

If something is more than a tweak of words, I’ll likely use a comment to discuss why I have an issue with it. An example was a scene where two characters were introduced by name, with no explanation of who they actually were — one of them seemed to be an enforcement officer, but throughout the chapter it seemed to jump as to which one was in charge of enforcement.

Again, this is me championing the reader. And I’ve been guilty of this myself. Sometimes the world lore is so embedded in our head we forget we’ve not included sufficient clues on the page to help the reader get to the same point!

Rule 6 — It’s your story, not mine

I don’t represent a publisher or magazine, I’m just trying to help you tell your story, but it’s your story.

I include comments and suggested changes, and I will also try and include the things I really loved about your work. Ultimately I’m working with you, not against you.

You are absolutely free to take what I provide and go “reject all”. But in doing so, do understand you’ve just chosen to disrespect my time.

You don’t have to take every suggestion, it’s your work, it’s your name that goes on it.

If you do have an issue with anything I’ve said, please respect me enough to engage with me, and not take to a public forum on social media to slander and vilify me. This is not respecting me or my time.

Rule 7 — Pay it forward

I have recieved a lot of support from others to help me grow as a writer. As writers we rely on support so much.

If I’ve help you, the solution is simple — help out someone else! Pay it forward.