The views expressed in the Writer-in-Residence blogs are those held by the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Open Book: Toronto.
Editors
Submitted by dellis on March 12, 2008 - 9:25am
I just received what I hope are the final rounds of notes from my editor on the fall book. Shelley Tanaka is the editor on this project, and she is brilliant in her ability to get to the heart of a story, simply and clearly.
This is a non-fiction book, of interviews, and one of the challenges is to bring forward the kids' voices, coupled with the background information that readers will need, without cluttering it up with my opinions and biases. Shelley is great at pushing me out of the way so that the important stories and voices can come through.
As a beginning writer, it took me awhile to learn to trust the reader, to learn that I didn't have to spell everything out in detail - the reader is capable of figuring out the story between the lines. Working with good editors helped me learn that.
