I’m opening with this image for two reasons. First, the gentleman who designed one of my favorite iterations of the Cybermen passed away. He did an amazing job bringing the silver giants into the 80’s and was instrumental as a production and costume designer for many other classic British SF shows.
It also highlights the collaborative nature of many media – and I wanted to talk a bit about the unique joy in collaboration, and how even writers (supposedly a solitary bunch) still need and benefit from working with others.
My fondest memory of a college project was acting as cameraman for a classmate’s film. The script called for someone to be bonked with a frying pan and, being poor college kids, we only had the real thing – not a fake one. So, with the actors and the director/writer, we figured out how to cheat the depth of field on a shot just enough, so one actor could swing the pan just behind the other.
In the editing room, we quick cut between a wide shot of the swing and a closer one. Add on a nice sound effect of the pan being hit by a gourd (to get the appropriate GONGGGG noise) and it looked to everyone else that we’d brained our actor in the name of completing a class project. Everyone got a charge out of not only figuring out how to get the effect, but watching the class puzzle through the final result.
This weekend, I was working on edits to [REDACTED] which will be [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED]. Now, I hate editing myself. Honestly, I am terrible at it. From finding my own typos to seeing through gaps in my story, or places where I can improve my craft, there are a host of blind spots in my work. There’s also the fact I don’t have many beta readers. The folks who do read my work often either focus on weird economic items or say “The corporate prosperity Christian folks are scary.” Which is lovely, but not really helpful in polishing the work and pushing it to a new level.
But with [REDACTED] I had some great notes from [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] which brought a new perspective to the story. I sat down to make edits Saturday morning and, by later that afternoon, I’d visibly improved the story thanks to the new perspective. I’d also lost several hours of time. And it was a wonderful way to lose those hours.
Yes, editing is a pain. And I have nothing but admiration for the folks who can and do make it their full time job. I can also see the wonder in the work. The joy in seeing a spark which can’t grow with just a little help… and you can provide that help. Just a few words here and there, to someone who appreciates them.
I appreciate them. Thank you. And I can’t wait to work with more editors in the future.
Biomechanoid Blues 