I got a note today from an editor of one of my forthcoming articles. “Thanks for being a good sport about the revisions,” it said. Which gives me a thought I’d like to share with young wannabe writers, and particularly young Objectivist wannabe writers.
I think many of you are very resistant to editing. Nothing could be more counterproductive. Speaking as a person who has published probably hundreds of articles, one of my biggest pieces of advice to those who want to write is, don’t make a big deal about being edited. Your writing will almost certainly be better for the changes. In my experience, editors rarely try to twist or alter your message, and your word choice is probably not so brilliant that an alternative phrase can’t be substituted. Only once that I can think of has an editor actually tried to change my message—I called her on it, and she stopped. In every other case, editing—and especially paring an article down in terms of length—has either improved my article or left it about the same quality.
Ayn Rand famously refused to agree to some editing in Atlas Shrugged* because she said it would be like editing the Bible. But what she failed to acknowledge was that the Bible has been edited! Often! And for the better!
Yes, sometimes your word choice is just perfect—as Twain said, the difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightning and the lightning-bug. But even with experienced writers, that happens pretty seldom. And if you’re cooperative with some suggestions, you’re much more likely to have an editor give in when you really do insist on something. So I urge those of you who want to write for publication to cooperate with editors. They have deadlines and space constraints, and they have a vested interest in making you look as good as possible. If they alter your meaning, most of the time it’s an accident. Yes, you should make sure your article says what you want it to say, and says it as well as possible. But refusing to make changes to your article is almost never worthwhile. You’re usually wrong; you’re less likely to form a workable relationship with your editor; and you’re less likely to be published to begin with—and if you’re not published, it probably wasn’t worth your stubbornness!
*-But note that, as The Early Ayn Rand demonstrates, Rand vigorously edited her work, as well, including cutting out a substantial portion of The Fountainhead. I don’t know how cooperative she was with editing on that book, but I think one reason that Fountainhead is just better literature is revealed by Leonard Peikoff’s comment that there are no substantial portions of Atlas that failed to make it into the final work.
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