Wordsmithing, Part 1: Line editing & rewriting

This link will take you to the first of five images. Use the right-hand arrow to see images two through five. Following up on this post, these screen captures show the results of basic before-and-after line editing using the compare function in MS Word. The original text that was eliminated shows strikeout and is highlighted in gray. New text is underscored, although a fair amount of this text was Brian's which I moved from elsewhere in the chapter. Remaining original text is plain. Brian now has the final from this process and may make additional edits.

For anyone unfamiliar with the book-editing process, let me note that after Brian and I have completely finished our work, this text is still going to be copyedited and proofread for basic grammatical and typographical errors. So, as an editor, while I do pay some attention to these as a matter of course, they are not top-of-mind matters for me at this stage of the process. Knowing that others are going to do a final cleaning up of the text frees me to focus on more strategic communication goals.

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Two progress-report emails

Here is an edited excerpt from an e-mail I sent Brian yesterday:

I think it's great that the blog is taking on more of a two-perspective feel….I suppose this will help people see that we really are working this out as we go along….
 
It occurs to me as I write this that you as an author do not have the benefit of receiving from me only those thoughts and observations that have had time to mature. As both a co-author and reader of the blog, you are probably facing more challenges than the average author I would work with, because you catch a glimpse of my half-formed observations. [Readers of this blog can probably appreciate the discomfort and awkwardness associated with having a premature draft of anything in circulation.] In other book-editing arrangements, I normally only turn over my thoughts on a chapter when they have taken a more definite shape.  Well, we asked for it.

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First Draft of Introduction

Ten days ago Kevin asked me to write an introduction to the book that answers as least some of the following questions:

• What, exactly, is this book about?
• How is it differentiated from other, similar books?
• Why should I read this book and not any one of 1000 other books on the Christian life?
• What will I gain from reading it?
• Will my benefit be worth the cost?
• Is this author able to connect with me through clear and straightforward writing?
• Does he seem to know what he is talking about?
• Does he have reasonable credentials to write on this subject?
• Do I feel welcomed into this book?
• Is the author going to lecture me or encourage me? (Does he motivate by grace?)

I have been waiting for a quiet afternoon free from other responsibilities to tackle this. But around noon today, several ideas came to mind, so I started writing and worked on the intro sporadically throughout the day. Nine hours and 1600 words later, my first draft is complete.

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Pulling back to gain perspective

Once I have gone into the text and begun to edit a chapter or two closely, I usually find myself cycling back and taking a fresh look at the larger structure and purpose of the book. This pattern gets reiterated several times throughout the editing process. There's something about getting down into the line-by-line editing that helps open up the thought process of the author and allows me to then step back and look at the larger work through eyes there that are at least a little bit more like his. At least, that's my goal.

In this instance, I was working on chapter 3, about three quarters of the way through it. This is often the point where some important refinements take place in a chapter as a whole. I looked back at the original title, "The Curse is Canceled," and realized that, after editing most of the chapter, I had yet to come upon the concept of curse in a way that really resonated with the title. That's when I pulled back and thought, Wait a minute, what is this chapter really about? Then I went back to the preceding chapter: What was that chapter about?  And how does it lead into this one?

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Acknowledging the high wire

Because this is a blog chronicling the process of editing, I am walking the high-wire here without a net. I'm laying out the case for how I have supposedly improved Brian's manuscript before he has even seen what I've done. In fact, I may not have improved it at all. I may be totally wrong.

Blogs, like reality TV, unfold in uncertain ways, subjecting their actors to the potential of public humiliation—perhaps this blog more than some others. That's okay. I think Brian and I understood what were getting ourselves into. There is a sense in which he is on a high wire as well. It's probably good for us both.

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The elusive goal of linearity

For the kind of book Brian has written, it is important to make your arguments essentially linear. This raises a challenge that is particularly acute for speakers or preachers who become authors: Reiterating points made previously, or foreshadowing points yet to come, may quite often be a good approach when speaking. It is rarely the best approach when presenting the same material in written form.

I came upon an example of this in editing chapter 3, a discussion of justification. Brian had come to a place where he was making three sub-points about justification:

• Justification is legal in nature
• Justification is declarative in function
• Justification concerns our status before God

Having been at this kind of work for a while, I know it is going to be extremely difficult to write this section in a way that really teases the points apart to make them distinct from one another.

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An Author's Initial Thoughts and Feelings

This is my first post on this blog, which Kevin Meath has designed to give an insider's look at the process of taking a book from manuscript to finished product. Since this is my first published book, I'm learning about this process for the first time. My initial thoughts and feelings as we have begun editing have included excitement, gratitude, nervousness, and confidence.

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