EDITOR@WORK

WORDS FOUND RECENTLY

Bolthole: a place where a person can escape and hide; a hole or burrow in which a rabbit or other wild animal can take refuge.

Bonzer: excellent; first-rate.

Canting: insincere or hypocritical, or affectedly pious or righteous.

Carbolic: phenol, especially when used as a disinfectant; disinfectant soap containing phenol.

Freehold: permanent and absolute tenure of land or property with freedom to dispose of it at will. Often contrasted with leasehold; a piece of land or property held by freehold.

Outface: disconcert or defeat (an opponent) by confronting them boldly.

Tyrannous: describes something characterized by oppressive power, often associated with cruel and unjust rule.

Wimple: a cloth headdress covering the head, neck, and the sides of the face, formerly worn by women and still worn by some nuns.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE

MORE EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES

• You really DO need an editor

• Reminders for would-be novelists

• What I do when I'm editing

• What I charge (it's a deal) and what I edit

• Slogging through the Internet

• J-school: More eyes on your stories

• J-school: Go out and learn

• Rookie mistakes for magazine writers

BLOG ENTRIES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Resume for a writer and editor

• An editor's views on powerful writing

• Advice for be and would-be novelists

• Links to TG's stories online

• Favorite quotes

• What I do when I'm editing

ANECDOTES BY TOM GILLISPIE

• Wipeout at Death Valley

• Days with rainbows

• A desperate writer working in the dark

• Yer OUTTA there!

ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG

• Katie cried

• Growl and pull

• 13-plus years with my dog Lady

• ... said the spider to ...

• The Dog Diary (2014)

• YIP! YIP! The stereo-sound huskies

• What Lady and Michael Jackson had in common

BLOG ENTRIES FROM THE AUTO RACING JOURNAL

• Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.

(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)

• Then Junior Said to Jeff...

(the book of great NASCAR stories)

• My best day as a sports writer

• Jeff Gordon's milk toast to Dale Earnhardt

• Wayne Auton: A life in racing

I've worked with newspaper copy editors who had a pat way of editing a story. They'd look for a little chunk of the story, perhaps an anecdote, that they could cut out.

Editors have done that to me many times. At least once, an editor cut out the reason for me writing the story. Another time that I recall, a different editor cut out the best anecdote in my story. In both cases, the stories were watered-down, weakened because of the editing.

Recently, an editor cut out three sentences from a quote to shorten the story. He'd have been better off just paraphrasing the quote. If I'd known he was going to do that, I'd have paraphrased the darn thing, since he cut out the best sentence in the whole story.

Other times, editors have end-cut my stories. And, often, they were leaving out the best part.

Lazy, lazy, lazy.

In every case, they would have been better served to have me edit my own story down to fit.

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EMAIL: tgilli52@gmail.com BLUESKY: PROFILE