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The Artful Edit by Susan Bell | 230 pages This book on becoming a better self-editor is divided into a handful of key sections: macro-editing, micro-editing, interviews with "editing" experts, and a history of the editing profession. It appears to have been originally published in 2007, which definitely explains some of the dated points of reference and comments about available technology. One of the things I did like about the book is that every section ended with both a "methods" and "practice" summary of what was discussed in the chapter. It was a really handy way to get the gist of the chapter in one convenient place. Of course, that also kind of raises the question of why you need the entire rest of every section when the abbreviated takeaways are right there at the end. For the kind of book it is (i.e., instructional/how-to), it kind of left the rest of the content in the book feeling a bit like filler since the meat of it was summarized at the end of every chapter. An aspect of the book that I found a little frustrating was the emphasis on a very limited number of examples. The author has apparently decided that The Great Gatsby is the prime example of all editing techniques, and that Walter Murch is the only example of a film editor worth seeking "master class" advice from. In books like these, my personal preference is to draw from a wealth of examples and individuals to get a good cross-section of advice and insight from multiple popular sources; this author doubles and triples and quadruples-down on only a few which, in my opinion, really limits the effectiveness of the examples if a reader is unfamiliar with the very specific selections the author has made. |
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