They are not holy.
They do not need to be handled with kid gloves.
Too many times in today’s publishing business, a writer’s creative
manipulation of a word’s use is beaten brutally back by well-meaning copy
editors. Make no mistake, these editors are only doing the jobs they’ve been
hired to do. Not these hard-working folks’ fault, at all.
But…
How many times has an Emily Dickinson been scared off of some healthy
experimentation by a crushing round of edits?
How many times has a Charles Dickens faced debilitating backlash for a
sentence running long and fanciful?
While I realize there is a time and place for both coloring inside and
outside the lines, it is rather sad that new authors must restrain themselves within
these black-and-white rules in order to get published.
My advice: Follow the rules. Get published. Get published lots. Then go
crazy. Turn a noun into a verb. Flip a verb into an adjective. Fiddle with
prefixes and suffixes until new words are born right there on your page. Then,
fight for the word with your editor.
If you pick and choose your battles, an established writer can get away
with wondrous things.
Until tomorrow…
Chloe
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