Writing Insights from Senior Editor David Brown of Darling Axe

David G. Brown

When I was first starting out as a writer in the early 80s, we didn't have email so that all query letters to editors were sent through the mail. (To the uninitiated, a query letter is how writers would pitch an article idea to a publication, or book idea to a publisher.) The first replies that I received were all form letters. I began to wonder if editors were even human, until one day an editor wrote a handwritten note on one of my rejection letters. "You're getting close."

As it turns out, editors are more than gatekeepers. Running a magazine or getting a newspaper assembled and out the door is only one kind of editorial role. In the writing field, many editors work much the same way bridal gown and tuxedo shops do, except that instead of helping you look your best on your wedding day, they work to make your prose look its best before it gets strutted out on the bigger stage.

This past year I began blogging on Medium,  a relatively new blogging platform started by Ev Williams, co-founder of both Blogger and Twitter. It's become a fairly good-sized community of writers and readers, and massive quantities of good content. I've noted a number of editors write on Medium, one of these being David Brown of the editing team Darling Axe.

David is an award-winning short fiction writer with two debut novels represented by the Donaghy Literary Group. He's published poetry, fiction, and nonfiction in magazines and literary journals, and he volunteers for the Malahat Review where he interviews writing judges and screens contest entries. He holds a BA in anthropology (UVic) and an MFA in creative writing (UBC). As a senior editor at DarlingAxe.com, he pays special attention to structure, relationship arcs, and voice.

EN: What are the primary reasons people hire an editor?

David Brown: Our most popular service is developmental editing, which is a thorough structural critique with scene-by-scene feedback. I would say this is also the most important service in terms of crafting an immersive and engaging narrative, whether for indie authors or authors seeking traditional publishing. In other words, it doesn’t matter how polished a novel’s prose if the story isn’t structurally sound.

Our second most popular service is line editing. This is much more than proofreading for errors. A line edit is a prose overhaul, with special attention to grammar, style, clarity, repetition, and word choice. This might involve reordering paragraphs and rewriting sentences, as well as trimming and cutting as required. This service is particularly important for self-publishing authors, as they do not have the support of an agent and publisher team.

Other than that, clients come to us for proofreading, query letter support, and hook assessments.

EN: What was your path from writer to editing for pay?

DB: I’ve always done a bit of both. One of my first jobs out of high school was as a copy editor for a university newspaper. A few years later I started freelance editing, everything from undergraduate essays to magazine articles and graduate theses. Meanwhile, I wrote a lot of poetry and short fiction, often publishing zines with friends, and occasionally getting legitimately published. Once I had enough of a portfolio, I applied for the MFA program in creative writing at UBC, and I was very excited to be accepted. Graduates from this program account for ten percent of all novels published in Canada. That’s where I gained a solid basis in writing and workshopping fiction—everything from short stories to novels to screenplays. From that point, it was a natural transition into editing fiction full time.

EN: I assume editing includes books, data sheets, articles. Can you enumerate and elaborate?

DB: At DarlingAxe.com, we focus primarily on novels, though we do also take on occasional short fiction projects, plays, screenplays, picture books, and even poetry. I also still have a few academic clients from my years freelancing, so I also work on some nonfiction projects.

EN: What’s the most interesting or unusual project you’ve worked on?

DB: That’s a very difficult question! I have had so many interesting projects this year. One of my favorites, though, was Dead by Sunrise by Richard Ryker. I love a good murder mystery, and Ryker has done an excellent job with this new release. The story is set in Forks, Washington, which is the same setting as Twilight, and he teases that connection in a way that adds a bit of humor into an otherwise suspenseful detective story.

EN: With the advent of self-publishing there’s been a massive quantity of badly edited books produced. Care to comment on this?

DB: Writing a full-length manuscript is a huge accomplishment, and I really can’t fault writers who are excited to get their creation in front of readers. However, it’s easy to love your own work too much, and thereby not see that revisions are still required to move from a draft to a masterpiece. It’s true that writers are very often hasty and rush into self-publishing before their manuscript is ready. In many of these cases, their book doesn’t do well as a result. There are, however, many amazing indie writers out there who know what they are doing, and who hire a professional to help make sure their manuscript is the best it can be before setting it loose on the world.

EN: That's good advice, especially since you only have one chance to make a first impression. What is your sales pitch or elevator speech to writers who need an editor?

DB: At DarlingAxe.com, we are professional editors as well as award-winning writers. We understand the intense effort and emotional investment you have poured into your work. It's our job to help you realize your vision and take your manuscript to the next level.

EN: A few quick responses here if you don't mind. How long should a blog post be?

DB: That depends on the topic, but this is the internet we’re talking about, so short and sweet is best. Ideally, blog posts are very specific so as to best answer a search query. For many writing topics, 500-1000 words seems to be a good target.

EN: Who has been your biggest influence?

DB: Ursula Le Guin and Raymond Chandler. I love that they both write exciting “genre” fiction with a literary voice.

EN: What have you been reading this year for personal enjoyment or enrichment?

DB: Best book I’ve read this year: Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer (The Terra Ignota series). Very excited for book four to come out next February!

EN: Where did the name Darling Axe come from?

DB: The Darling Axe comes from a bit of universal writing advice: kill your darlings. This is a reference to sentences, characters, or entire sections of a manuscript that are dear to a writer, but that are not actually serving the story. The narrative must come first! You sometimes need to let go, kill your darlings, and get tough with yourself for the next revision. Our axe is well honed, so we’re happy to assist authors who need a bit of guidance in setting their darlings free.

EN: Ah! Got it. Thanks for all the good advice.


Related Links
DarlingAxe.com
https://medium.com/

Editor Gordon Lish

While doing research on Gordon Lish I came across a very interesting discovery. This guy, former editor for Esquire magazine from 1969 to 1977, completely changed writers' works. So much so that the original, when compared to the stripped down finish, might conceivably be unrecognizable.

An October 2007 New York Times article, When We Talk About Editing, revealing the deep cuts Lish made in Raymond Carver's work is eye opening. Astounding, actually.

What is especially interesting to me is that when I was first writing fiction, a New York friend in the publishing business said my work was O.K. but to see what great writing really looked like I should read Raymond Carver who exemplified the new minimalism in literature.

Now, more than two decades later, I discover Carver is not what everyone thought he was. Or rather, the Carver that critics called "great" was actually Gordon Lish. How can this be?

Editors do play several important roles when it comes to writers. I am grateful for having had some very good editors massage my work at times. A takes a second set of eyes to see that two ideas in a paragraph may not be linked very well, or that a meaning is ambiguous, or that a sentence is clumsy. Young writers are more likely to get repeat jobs if they don't mind this attention to detail by a second pen.

Here's the opening paragraph of the Times piece.

''One More Thing'' is the final story in both ''What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,'' Raymond Carver's breakthrough collection from 1981, and ''Beginners,'' a proposed volume of what Carver's widow, Tess Gallagher, and some scholars, consider Carver's original versions of the same stories. They were later trimmed and sometimes reshaped by Gordon Lish, Carver's first editor. In the story L. D. is threatening to walk out on his wife and family.

Check out these two versions of the end of one of Raymond Carver's more famous stories, revealing how the piece was originally submitted and what readers saw after Dr. Lish applied the scalpel.

What do you think?

The Magazine Scene

I just spent the week at the MPMC, a media conference in L.A. designed to bring together companies in the performance aftermarket with editors in the media. The meetings allow companies to tell their stories, show what's new and forge relationships with editors and writers for publications.

As an advertising and PR professional, as well as long time writer, I keep a firm grip on the pulse of the publishing industry. Since Gutenberg, the written word has probably been the most influential force in history. Communists relied deliberately and heavily on the written word to make in-roads in Latin America. Christianity has similarly relied on the written word, and for this reason was a major for in literacy from Reformation days onward.

Despite the pervasiveness of television and radio, magazines have remained strong as a valued resource for both information and diversion. But there are challenges for the magazines now. The cost of distribution is increasingly hefty, as well as the rising printing costs for staff, paper and ink.

This past year the housing crisis and banking crisis intersected the auto industry, with subsequent reverberations leaving many damaged companies all the down the line. As a result, advertising dollars have been in decline, resulting in a crisis for magazine publishers.

Editors today face many challenges, not least of which is the need to produce the same high quality content with reduced staff. Furthermore, the content has to be as such that it is less timely and more useful. Less timely because breaking news is already old news by the time it is in print. Most readers now tap Google News or other favorite portals to follow these more urgent topics. In short, magazine editorial must be deeper and compelling for reasons other than timeliness.

Of course, without readers you won't attract advertisers. And without advertisers you can't pay salaries, so then it is still more work for the last staff standing, and the quality must not suffer. Publishers are feeling the pinch because even with readers, many companies have closed their wallets in an effort to remain solvent during these tough times. I know of one company that sells larger ticket items which has not had a sale since August. It's hard to keep your doors open when no one is buying.

If you Twitter, and you wish to follow the shakedown of the publishing scene, be sure to follow TheMediaIsDying, who has a firm hand on the pulse of this market sector. (You can also follow me on Twitter as ennyman3)

ednote:

Not every mag publisher is a-tremblin',

Some rags are even thrivin'

But one thing's certain

at the end of the day

the Times they are a-changin'.