"Now to him who is
able to do immeasurably
more than all we ask
or imagine, according
to his power that is
at work within us,
to him be glory in
the church and in
Christ Jesus throughout
all generations, for
ever and ever! AMEN."
Ephesians 3:20-21, NIV
Gloria on editing:
I once heard Sally Stuart (of the Christian Writer's Market) give a keynote address where she candidly admitted that she "fell" into the business of compiling marketing material. I feel the same way about editing. Looking back, I think it happened because I was poor, unpublished, and not ready to give up the dream. As an aside to whatever money-job I was currently holding (or not holding) at the moment, I advertised to do typing. My ads brought mostly resumes and college reports, but I did receive the occasional piece of fiction, mostly from folks I would meet in writers' meetings. Being a developing writer myself, I found I couldn't retype grammatical errors, and was soon seeking permission to edit as well as type.Not surprisingly, my big leap into editing came in the same fashion. A fellow writer, who also happens to own a publishing house in western PA, asked me if I would type a compilation of devotions for a book called Penned From the Heart. Whining that I didn't know anything about devotions, especially poetry, I listened as Florence Biros assured me that another lady with "experience" would edit the submissions and send them on to me. I agreed to type, and a writing friend agreed to help me proofread. Due to health reasons, the experienced editor never entered the picture.
That was back in 1996. Karen Martin and I put together the third volume of Penned From the Heart (The first two volumes were published in the early 1980s.) with prayer, pleading, and audacity. We stood solid on what we knew; and we faked what we didn't. And we learned. Almost immediately following the release of volume iii, Florence began collecting devotions for volume iv with the assumption we'd do it again. We did. And it was better.
Then came vol. v. Karen pulled back from the editing, and I still viewed myself as a great big fraud -- what did I know about editing other people's works? -- but the work was there to be done. Life grabbed Karen in the form of a full time job, and I edited the next two volumes alone, even formatted volume vii for publication.
I believe it was between volumes v and vi that I heard Sally Stuart. I heard her talk about experience being as much of an educator as formal education -- and I quit calling myself a typist and started calling myself an editor.
I make no claims to being a good one, but I am an editor nonetheless. I edit my own work. I edit short fiction for others, for writing contests, in critique groups. And I edit a yearly book of 366 devotions. I've been doing it for six years. I didn't plan on being an editor. I sort of "fell" into it. Funny how God uses subtlety to bend stubborn, fearful hearts, and to help us grow beyond what we believed ourselves capable, isn't it?