thoughts on the craft of editing, uselessness of "theme" concept

As shocking as it may sound, many books on editing fail to give helpful, practical advice. This book succeeds where others have failed. McCormack's chapter on craft stands out like a shining beacon in the field of publishing books. Because of that chapter alone, I recommend this book to anyone who wants to write, edit, or teach fiction (or even non-fiction, which is actually what I want to edit).

McCormack's ideas on sensibility (you either have it or you don’t) are interesting and, in some places, very insightful. I agree with him that not every editor is ideally suited to edit every book and that his/her taste must be similar to the taste of the “ideal reader” of a particular book. But at the same time, I’m not so sure that there are a “gifted few” who are born with editorial genius and the rest of the world are just a bunch of Philistines. I think everyone has some artistic sensibility. Whether or not they have the ability or inclination to use and develop this sensibility might be a different story.

However, my opinion once again coincides with his when he points out the important relationship between craft and sensibility. Craft gives you a “bag of tricks” or a set of practical skills and strategies for making a book better. But only artistic sensibility can guide you in how (or if) to use particular elements of your craft. For example, craft would say to avoid using the same verb repeatedly in one paragraph. But one of my classmates brought in a poignant paragraph from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods that repeated the verb “believe” over and over to a marvelous effect. Clearly, the editor of American Gods needed to rely on sensibility to say, “Go ahead; break the ‘rules.’ It’s powerful, it’s beautiful, don’t ruin it because of your devotion to Strunk and White!”

Only book I know of that can teach an aspiring editor how it should be done. Bar none, the best I've read. I can't wait for the new edition in October 2006! ( )