Giving Thanks: For editors and wordsmiths

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Too Many Books to Count! I’m so glad you stopped by. This month, as it’s the month of Thanksgiving, we’re talking thankfulness, and the things that we writers should all be thankful for, in our lives. Some of them, like words themselves and the linguistics we use to speak them, you might not have thought of before. Others, like the pair we’ll be talking about today, I hope that you’ve been thankful for since the moment you started writing. But whatever they are, I’m talking about them from the angle of the writer, to show you why I, as a writer, am extremely thankful for these things.

Giving Thanks: For editors and wordsmiths

See what I mean? I hope that you’ve always been thankful for these things. These are two things that you’ll be working with a lot, if you’re an author—and if you’re not working with them, then I’m not sure what rock you’ve been hiding under ;-)

I’m extremely thankful for the wordsmiths who came before me, and for those who exist all around me. I’m thankful to be able to pick up a book and find inspiration for the story I’m working on, based on work another wordsmith did before me. I’m thankful that wordsmiths exist at all, that there are people out there who pride themselves on stringing words together in the most beautiful or powerful ways possible, that there are people who know and love words so much that they know every in and out of every word, and that they know how to use words to create the biggest of impacts. For me, that’s what it’s all about.

I want to create impact, with my writing. I want to be powerful and intentional, with the words I choose. And for that, I’m thankful for myriad wordsmiths who’ve come before me, from whom I can learn and understand and grow into my own writing talent. I’m thankful for the wordsmiths who inspired me to write in the first place, and I’m thankful for those who continue to inspire me, day in and day out.

But I’m also extremely thankful for editors, because without them, even those amazing wordsmiths wouldn’t have gotten it right every time. I’m thankful for the editors who stand quietly behind the best of authors, the editors who stand their quietly and proudly, knowing that it’s their work the audience is reading, too, and not wanting credit for a cent of it. I’m thankful for those editors who edit with a zeal and passion that matches that of the writer, so the story turns out even better than either one could’ve imagined.

Editors are, as you know, extremely important in the writing world—and I think writers aren’t always as thankful for them as we should be. Editors are the biggest fans of writing, and I wish more writers would see it that way. Editors work hard at what they do, at making someone else’s work shine brighter than the writer could’ve done on their own—and I for one am extremely thankful for them, because without my editors, I would’ve published a slew of plotholes over the years. And nobody wants to do that.

I’m thankful, for the people in the writing world. Wordsmiths, editors, you name it—I’m thankful for all of them, especially for those who came long before me, as they helped to shape the world we’re in, with their stories and mastery of words.

We can do that too, you know, for those ahead of us. What words would you wish to leave behind?

[love]

{Rani Divine}