Editor’s Note: Being a military writer/editor is obviously something near and dear to my heart. SOFREP is certainly no stranger to bestselling authors/books. That’s why I’m so proud to be able to introduce you all today to Retired Green Beret Sergeant Major Randy Surles and his business partner Laura Graves, who together make up “The Story Ninjas.” Without exception, just about every service member I’ve ever spoken with has a story to tell, something they want to share with the world. Folks like Randy and Laura can help you with that and when the time comes, we can all work together to get your military work published, if that is your goal. In the meantime, SOFREP is looking for military writers. You can give us anecdotes of your time in the services, your thoughts on your favorite firearms or your take on military culture today. Hit me up at [email protected] and/or have a chat with Randy and Laura. We’ll be sure to get you headed in the right direction. –GDM
—
As the sales numbers loaded on the monitor in front of me, a broad, satisfied grin took over my face. Operation Pineapple Express, an account of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan written by Scott Mann and ghost-cowritten by me, had hit the NYT Best Seller List. Clicking into another tab, I checked a fictional parable about real estate investing that my partner and I ghost-wrote for another client. The Wise Investor had hit number one in three separate categories on Amazon.
Filled with confidence from the tremendous success of these projects, I opened a new document and hammered out the first episode of a flash fiction series I’d been planning for a while. Once finished, I looked it over and debated whether to send it to my partner for review or just go ahead and publish it online. Laura and I always look over each other’s writing, whether it is a project for a client or something we are working on for ourselves. The feedback and insight we gain from an outside perspective have proven invaluable time and time again. But it also slows down the project. Client work gets priority over personal projects, and we both have lives outside of work, so we don’t always get back to each other immediately.
I’ll just publish it, I decided. As I hit the submit button for the online publication, I felt solid in my decision. Recent success had proven that I’d made it as an author. Not only had I written multiple books for other people, but they’d also been commercially successful. I was at the point that I could publish my writing without first subjecting it to developmental editing.
Or so I thought. The feedback came in quickly—and harshly. Confused, I asked Laura to look at the short scene. Instead of giving me glowing praise, she offered a blunt critique. What did she like about the article? Not much. Frustrated and discouraged, I immediately took the episode down. At first, I was a little upset with Laura. Had she really needed to be so critical? But as my emotions leveled out, I realized that the real problem was my overconfidence.
The reality is that no one has ever “made it” as an author so much that they can see their own work clearly. We all need an outsider to read our writing and help us to see what is working and where changes are needed.
Editor’s Note: Being a military writer/editor is obviously something near and dear to my heart. SOFREP is certainly no stranger to bestselling authors/books. That’s why I’m so proud to be able to introduce you all today to Retired Green Beret Sergeant Major Randy Surles and his business partner Laura Graves, who together make up “The Story Ninjas.” Without exception, just about every service member I’ve ever spoken with has a story to tell, something they want to share with the world. Folks like Randy and Laura can help you with that and when the time comes, we can all work together to get your military work published, if that is your goal. In the meantime, SOFREP is looking for military writers. You can give us anecdotes of your time in the services, your thoughts on your favorite firearms or your take on military culture today. Hit me up at [email protected] and/or have a chat with Randy and Laura. We’ll be sure to get you headed in the right direction. –GDM
—
As the sales numbers loaded on the monitor in front of me, a broad, satisfied grin took over my face. Operation Pineapple Express, an account of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan written by Scott Mann and ghost-cowritten by me, had hit the NYT Best Seller List. Clicking into another tab, I checked a fictional parable about real estate investing that my partner and I ghost-wrote for another client. The Wise Investor had hit number one in three separate categories on Amazon.
Filled with confidence from the tremendous success of these projects, I opened a new document and hammered out the first episode of a flash fiction series I’d been planning for a while. Once finished, I looked it over and debated whether to send it to my partner for review or just go ahead and publish it online. Laura and I always look over each other’s writing, whether it is a project for a client or something we are working on for ourselves. The feedback and insight we gain from an outside perspective have proven invaluable time and time again. But it also slows down the project. Client work gets priority over personal projects, and we both have lives outside of work, so we don’t always get back to each other immediately.
I’ll just publish it, I decided. As I hit the submit button for the online publication, I felt solid in my decision. Recent success had proven that I’d made it as an author. Not only had I written multiple books for other people, but they’d also been commercially successful. I was at the point that I could publish my writing without first subjecting it to developmental editing.
Or so I thought. The feedback came in quickly—and harshly. Confused, I asked Laura to look at the short scene. Instead of giving me glowing praise, she offered a blunt critique. What did she like about the article? Not much. Frustrated and discouraged, I immediately took the episode down. At first, I was a little upset with Laura. Had she really needed to be so critical? But as my emotions leveled out, I realized that the real problem was my overconfidence.
The reality is that no one has ever “made it” as an author so much that they can see their own work clearly. We all need an outsider to read our writing and help us to see what is working and where changes are needed.
We all need a developmental editor.
What is a Developmental Editor, and why do I need one?
If you are new to the writing world, you may think all editors do is fix your commas. While copy editing is an important part of putting a book out into the world, it is not the only type of editing you need. Developmental editors read your story and help identify and correct problems with plot, characters, and structure, among other things.
But what about friends and family? Can’t they read your story and offer you feedback on those things? Why should you contract an editor? Unfortunately, friends and family often struggle to separate their feelings for you from their feelings about your writing. Your mother is so impressed that the child whose butt she wiped has grown into an adult who can put words to page, that she can’t see a thing wrong with your story (except maybe that comma you missed). And your best friend is just in awe that the person who got hammered and puked in his car managed to finish a novel. These people are not objective about you—nor should they be—and they won’t be objective about your work, either.
Can you just use beta readers? Beta readers can be valuable for gathering reader response, but their clarity about what is not working in a book and their technical knowledge about what can be done to fix it tends to be limited.
Here are a few examples of the difference between beta reader and editor feedback:
- What the Beta Reader says: The pacing felt too slow.
- What the Editor says: Your story starts too early. Because you choose to include fifty pages of backstory and exposition before anything happens to disrupt the protagonist’s world, the pacing of the story feels slow. You can fix this by starting your novel in chapter XX.
- What the Beta Reader says: Your characters felt flat and unrealistic.
- What the Editor says: Instead of your protagonist making decisions based on a consistent personality pursuing an important goal, he made the decisions you needed him to make based on the direction you seemed to want the plot to go. Before crafting scenes, decide what your character values, and what he is willing to do to achieve his goals.
- What the Beta Reader says: Your plot felt formulaic.
- What the Editor says: Because everything always went according to plan for your hero, your story lacked tension. This made the plot feel predictable. After the first few scenes of seeing him make and successfully execute a plan, I stopped worrying that something might go wrong or that he might face some insurmountable obstacle. To add tension to your story, consider having X, Y, and Z go wrong.
While beta readers will readily (sometimes too readily) find fault with your work, their feedback can be generic to the point of being useless. Comments like “poor dialogue”, “info dumping”, and “lack of depth” are both discouraging and unhelpful. What made the dialogue poor? What should you do to fix it? And what does “info dumping” even mean? Are you not supposed to world build?
This is why everyone, from the first-time novelist to the NYT Best-Selling author, needs to work with a developmental editor. I’m fortunate enough to work with a partner who provides developmental feedback on my writing. Who will be the objective voice on your writing journey?
Laura and Randy are The Story Ninjas, a team of ghostwriters, Book Coaches, and Developmental Editors. If you need help with your writing, check us out at www.thestoryninjas.com.
COMMENTS
There are
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.