Words on a page

Editors: The Good, The Bad

Anyone who writes for a living has to deal with editors. And editors are a mixed bag. Sometimes they're good. Sometimes they're bad. Among the bad ones, there are those who you just want to string up with the old Alcatraz Ascot.

A good editor can make your work better. S/he can prod or cajole that little extra out of you that makes a good article or story even better. I've been pretty lucky when it comes to editors. Throughout my writing career, I have worked with several editors who not only improved my work, but made me feel good about my writing. Chief among them are Gordon Brockhouse (who edited the now-defunct Home Computing and Entertainment magazine), Molly Holzschlag, Mike Bennet (former managing editor of Multilingual Computing), and the various editors that I worked with at Smart Computing.

These editors were a joy to work with. On the other side of the coin, I've always had major problems with editors whenever I've been doing technical writing jobs. I've found that some technical editors can be a major pain in the neck (and a spot a couple of feet lower). Many of the ones that I've dealt with are incredibly pedantic, have no idea how the software I've been writing about works, and know nothing of the audience for the documentation. Most are also blinkered when it comes to style guidelines.

It's the latter point that's most contentious with me. I view style guidelines as just that: pointers, suggestions, advice. My editors have all viewed the guidelines as sacrosanct. But let's be honest, sometimes the guidelines break down or have no provision for a certain problem. I've always felt that if a writer stays within the general rule of the guidelines and if any deviation is invisible to the reader, then it's OK. But it's often nigh on impossible to convince an editor of that.