LET'S TALK ABOUT WORDS
Blogging is new to me...and All About Words seems to me to be a good place to start. My blogs will be a gathering and sharing of just that...WORDS. As wordsmiths, we don't think about words--we speak them, we write them, we read them--but we don't "think" about them. Today's blog is an overview of what I'll be sharing over the next weeks, months, and maybe even years.
So it seems only right that a conversation about words from one wordsmith to another should begin with this topic. As I edit manuscripts of all sorts--nonfiction, fiction, essays, creative nonfiction--I focus on word choices and how an author selects and uses words to convey his or her thoughts. I have seen purple prose, wrong word choices, painting a description using the five senses, using big words versus small words, just to mention a few. If I am driven to a dictionary to understand what a writer is trying to say, I will comment on it. To my pleasure, I have several clients who just seem to know how to put the right words together to design a perfect picture.
In nonfiction editing, my word focus is on the organization of the piece; do the chosen words convey a well-thought-out, easy to understand, presentation for the nonfiction work. This is not usually a story from beginning to middle to end, but a different concept that might be science, health, religion, technology, just to name a few topics, and that comprehending that work is of paramount importance to the reader, the editor, and the author.
While my blogs will be primarily designed to share my personal thoughts, they will not be focused on education. They will give you insight into how my mind works when I edit (a somewhat scary thought!). You might agree with how I see word usage, you might disagree. If I say something that makes you stop and think, that's important. If you have any questions, I encourage you to share. I discourage political rhetoric or argumentative discourse - that's not what we are about here. Let's stay focused on the topic of the week, but I do look forward to hearing from you as we share our thoughts All About Words.