Why editors should write… and need to

It was time. I was about to be hit with a big truth by people who really knew their stuff.

And it wasn’t going to be easy to take!

Sitting with 11 writers in a seminar room at The Hurst, the playwright John Osborne’s beautiful country house in Shropshire, was intimidating enough.

Then Rory MacLean and Jay Griffiths, bestselling, multi-award-winning authors, started the session with a bang.

‘Rule No. 1 of non-fiction writing: IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU! You have to write for your reader.’

When authors of that calibre speak, you shut up and listen…

That week at Arvon’s writing centre was probably the most challenging of my creative life.

I’d gone there to be taught by the best, because I was serious about wanting to edit travel writing. And the only way was to get stuck in and learn from the ground up by doing it myself…

Arvon residential writing weeks are full immersion. No internet. No TV.  Patchy mobile phone reception. Just learning in class, then going away to write and practise it.

The goal of an Arvon week is to step away from everyday distraction and pressure, and focus. Squeezing every last drop out of that precious time you have to think and write is what you’re there for.

In the morning, you attend seminars where your tutors deliver and you do exercises – some of which you have to read out in class for everyone else to critique. In the evenings, visiting guest authors give more readings, as well as discussion of the day.

Afternoons are given up to writing, and individual tutorials are scheduled with the course leaders.

At Arvon, you’re tasked to complete one piece by the end of the course.
The kicker? You have to read it out loud to everyone on the final night.

Some of the notes that came back to me during the process were really positive. Some of them stung. One day, after a tutorial with Jay, I went back to my room, eyes brimming, to lick my wounds.

Her feedback was right, of course. She hadn’t said anything that wasn’t perfectly valid or unhelpful. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I just hadn’t known what to expect, and wasn’t prepared for it.

Thing is, when we’re writing, we’re putting our source and selves into what’s on the page.  Writing is a deeply personal act, and it can be hard to distance ourselves from that.

But we have to – if we’re going to create a successful book. We have to pivot that lens from what we think to what readers actually want and need.

And remind ourselves that critique isn’t criticism!

That piece I wrote 10 years ago at Arvon, about travelling in Croatia, won a Wanderlust magazine competition.

Those whirlwind seven days changed my working life too. I specialise in business books and other subject areas, and I develop and edit travel books now.

It’s a genre I adore, from Bill Bryson to Patrick Leigh Fermor and more.

Short of going there yourself, there’s nothing better than travelling with someone on the page. The adventuring authors who take off and come back to write about all the crazy things and people that have happened to them are bold and bonkers and brave, and make for such a dang good read.

I love it!

I believe that every editor should write. I do. I blog regularly, have published articles on music, record reviews and pop culture; I write poetry and short form prose, and compose songs.

Editors must write, if they’re even to begin to understand what the author journey is really like.

If they don’t, something’s wrong – and missing.

If you’re an author, I get you. I understand what you go through to get those words on the page.

And as an editor, I have your back. These days, sometimes I have to deliver hard truths too. But they’re only ever in the service of making your book the very best it can be.

And to help you shine 🌟