Wednesday 21 May 2008

Cutting off your nose with a chainsaw, gluing it back on with a paste made of flour and water, then cutting it off again

Hey you bloggers! Stick this in your pipes and smoke it:

There is a reason that newspapers, magazines and publishing companies have commissioning editors and rewrite editors and copy/line/sub and check editors and not one of the exceptionally talented and published food writers that I know would argue that a good editor will take a piece of writing — be it a piece of investigative journalism, a profile, an essay, an opinion piece, a review, a recipe — and make it better. Nor would they argue that a good editor is almost always essential to their process.


(sauce)

16 comments:

Alexis, Baron von Harlot said...

I think that there paragraph might be trying to perform what happens in the absence of an editor. Meanwhile, apparently the first rhinoplasty procedures were developed in response to syphilis, which erodes the nose cartilage.

GS said...

Don't get me started on this one! I was there on the day. It was messy. Very messy. Ego juice leaking all over the place, then dripping through all corners of the Australian Food Blogosphere.

Anonymous said...

There are indeed many good reasons for employing professional editors. If only more organisations would do it!

(I've been reading position descriptions today, and I feel like sending some of them back with corrections)

Kerryn Goldsworthy said...

Innercitygarden, on the other hand there are the editors who 'correct' one's copy by applying 'house style' without checking to see that the copy still makes sense, and/or by introducing all kinds of other errors into it. This one is definitely a double-edged sword.

I've also noticed that the fulsomeness with which novelists thank their editors on the Acknowledgements page increases in direct proportion to the disgraceful crappiness of the editing job in question. It's very strange.

Anonymous said...

It's quite interesting that food blogging can be so hot right now that it should produce a pseudo-pscandal about editorial quality. I'm looking forward to the day when some uppity cat-blogger starts dissin' the others for using correct spelling and grammar.

lucy tartan said...

oh, that happens all the time. see here for a recent instance (comments) http://allordinary2.blogspot.com/2008/04/lolkitteh-teatowelsembroidered.html

Anonymous said...

Heh. More things in heaven and blogs, yada yada.

Mindy said...

What does someone tie her to a chair and force her to read other people's blogs or something? Who was it who said "I never read something I haven't written"? Maybe is she sticks to that she will be happy with the quality of writing.

Anonymous said...

Hmmm...went back to leave a comment, but the post was gone. I wanted to say, that what people always seem to overlook is that the more you write, the better you get (you know, usually). Also, the more you write, the more you appreciate other people's good writing.

It's like when you've done two dance lessons, you watch ballet with new eyes. So to speak.

If we only let the people who are excellent at things do them, then there wouldn't be any excellent people.

Pretty sure this won't make sense to anyone else, but I feel better now.

Also, has the proportion of baz photos to others changed? Just asking.

Tim said...

If we only let the people who are excellent at things do them, then there wouldn't be any excellent people.

And precious little media or entertainment of any sort.

Anonymous said...

Well, the link is working again now, but obviously I've already left my thoughts on this and am spending my hours on more productive things than following up blog comments I've made in various places.

Tony said...

I had to leave a trail of breadcrumbs behind me to find my way out of that paragraph.

Anonymous said...

When Elegant Sufficiency or any of her cohorts can entertain me half as much as Twisty Faster's recklessly funny and intricate prose, then she can talk. Maybe.

Anonymous said...

(You might not know that TF is a food writer IRL - sorry if you already knew that. I just realised the previous comment looked a bit out of context)

Anonymous said...

oooh - very snotty

(the excerpt, not the comments)

Drewzel said...

Thanks for sharing this one Laura, as I wouldn't have seen it otherwise. Most entertaining.

What Thirdcat said.