Editing and publication questions

[Gerald]

Although she isn't an "official" editor, after Tabby read Bag of Bones, Steve deleted an entire section he'd written about what Mike Noonan was doing after Jo died. He explained to Tabby that he thought readers might want to know what Mike had been doing and Tabby's response was that "(he) didn't need to bore them to death doing it." That's one example of how it took someone else to point out a section that Steve might have thought was good but others might not.

Thanks, but you already told that one time.
I think to quite a lot of writers their wife/husband is their most important sounding board.

I remember though when reading The Waste Lands (a long, long time ago) that I felt towards the end the prose got 'messier'. That may have been one of the cases where an editor might have helped. It's too long ago to give details though, just my feeling at the time when I was reading it. For me it's often hard to say if that was the original writing or just the translator of course.
But on the whole I don't find them any different from the majority of his books that was edited.

 

[Moderator]

Thanks, but you already told that one time.
I think to quite a lot of writers their wife/husband is their most important sounding board.

I remember though when reading The Waste Lands (a long, long time ago) that I felt towards the end the prose got 'messier'. That may have been one of the cases where an editor might have helped. It's too long ago to give details though, just my feeling at the time when I was reading it. For me it's often hard to say if that was the original writing or just the translator of course.
But on the whole I don't find them any different from the majority of his books that was edited.

Are you saying I need to edit myself?

 

[Gerald]

Are you saying I need to edit myself?

No, you need a bigger drawer of examples.

 

[Doc Creed]

Are you saying I need to edit myself?

 

[Gerald]

Actually in the case of SK it makes quite sense that he needs an editor. I think he is mostly an emotional and instinctive writer.
With someone like Koontz, who writes a page twenty times over before he moves on to the next it's hard to imagine what an editor might add to it. Yet as we established in another thread Koontz tends to overlook things and leave loose ends - maybe because he's too focussed on the individual pages. So if he doesn't have an editor, he too could use one.

 

[Gerald]

Actually Koontz as a person is quite an emotional guy too, but you feel it less in his work than with King, because of the precise and more methodical way he writes his prose.

I don't mind emotional writing, but my main problem with it is that it can get sentimental quite easily. And with King it does from time to time. There is feeling things, which is essentially what you want to achieve with creative writing, but then there is over-feeling, dwelling on that feeling, which makes it directly feel forced and unnatural - also, as if the writer is forcing those feelings on the reader.
But then there is a group of readers that loves dwelling on feelings, I suppose. But it doesn't make for the most unforgettable literature in the end.

 

[Gerald]

Actually, I use the word actually a lot. Can some actual editor, actually edit that out?

 

[Moderator]

Actually Koontz as a person is quite an emotional guy too, but you feel it less in his work than with King, because of the precise and more methodical way he writes his prose.

I don't mind emotional writing, but my main problem with it is that it can get sentimental quite easily. And with King it does from time to time. There is feeling things, which is essentially what you want to achieve with creative writing, but then there is over-feeling, dwelling on that feeling, which makes it directly feel forced and unnatural - also, as if the writer is forcing those feelings on the reader.
But then there is a group of readers that loves dwelling on feelings, I suppose. But it doesn't make for the most unforgettable literature in the end.

 

[Moderator]

Actually, I use the word actually a lot. Can some actual editor, actually edit that out?

 

[GNTLGNT]

Actually Koontz as a person is quite an emotional guy too, but you feel it less in his work than with King, because of the precise and more methodical way he writes his prose.

I don't mind emotional writing, but my main problem with it is that it can get sentimental quite easily. And with King it does from time to time. There is feeling things, which is essentially what you want to achieve with creative writing, but then there is over-feeling, dwelling on that feeling, which makes it directly feel forced and unnatural - also, as if the writer is forcing those feelings on the reader.
But then there is a group of readers that loves dwelling on feelings, I suppose. But it doesn't make for the most unforgettable literature in the end.

...I would disagree about Koontz's emotions....he lives by the "philosophical happy ending" and all the positives he pushes even in the darkest of his character's times...he verges on "preachy".....

 

[Gerald]

...I would disagree about Koontz's emotions....he lives by the "philosophical happy ending" and all the positives he pushes even in the darkest of his character's times...he verges on "preachy".....

In his work, yeah, but did you ever see an interview or some such thing with him? He seems very emotional, he even has a tremble in his voice often and I don't think that's his age.

 

[Gerald]

People often talk about a 'scene' in a book, I think SK does too. But isn't this technically wrong? A scene relates to theatre or film:

SCENE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

Shouldn't it be a 'passage' really? Or is 'scene' generally accepted for a book too?

 

[Gerald]

People often talk about a 'scene' in a book, I think SK does too. But isn't this technically wrong? A scene relates to theatre or film:

SCENE | meaning in the Cambridge English Dictionary

Shouldn't it be a 'passage' really? Or is 'scene' generally accepted for a book too?

It seems the main difference between a scene and a passage, is that a scene always contains some form of action, while a passage can just describe something without something necessarily actually happening.
But the word 'scene' is used wherever there is indepth talk about writing and books, so I suppose it's generally accepted to use for the page as well as the stage and screen.