Brenda Hill -
Manuscript Editing Services
Woman-in-Charge
Interview
by Chelle Cordero
Today we meet Brenda Hill, Author, Instructor, and Freelance Editor. Brenda shares some “glories and the agonies” of her career. “I hope it helps some new and not so new writers."
Can you briefly describe your job/position? Tell us a little bit about your company.
My husband and I owned a bookstore in Denver in the 1980s, and during that time, I met several writers. Since I’d previously been a proofreader for an aerospace corporation, many asked me to check their manuscripts. Word spread and soon I was proofing more and more manuscripts. I didn’t edit until much later, after I’d taken several writing classes and learned fiction writing techniques—which, by the way, is a never-ending process. I’m always learning.
After selling the bookstore, I concentrated on learning as much as I could about writing, and I began writing my own novel. I founded my editing business, joined an international critique group, and edited for a small press.
Today, I still edit, but because of time constraints, I concentrate on first chapters. They’re exciting, full of promise, and critical to a writer’s success. If an opening chapter drags or puts an editor to sleep, the rest of the wonderful story that follows will never be read.
I love working on first chapters. After listening to agents and acquiring editors talk about what they look for when reading a submission, I enjoy working with writers, making sure they’ve used the elements needed to interest a reader.
Have there been any major changes in the position’s responsibilities/description since you have been in the spot?
As I grew busier in my own writing career with novels, short stories, and writing for my Southern California newspaper, I cut back on editing full manuscripts. Just not enough time—or energy.
When I edit, I put as much effort into the project as if I were the one writing. If a paragraph or a sentence doesn’t flow, I rewrite and rewrite again and again until I feel that certain satisfaction when reading it. I may wind up cutting it, or, if it’s good but just doesn’t fit, I may move it. All of that takes time and effort, and now I don’t always have enough time, so I might recommend another editor. I’d rather lose the business than give anything but my best to my clients.
What kind of education or training do you have? Was this current position a goal of yours? What were your original career goals?
Most of my education about writing came later, starting with my bookstore days and then writing my own material.
When I started writing my novel, I thought, since I’d read profusely since childhood and was fairly good and English and grammar, I could write a good book. Just to be sure, I enrolled in a writing course at the community college. I wrote that novel and was very proud of myself and wasn’t shy about sending it out to agents. But, when the rejections started arriving, I couldn’t understand it. After all, I could read, loved to write, and I had a basic grasp of how a story should go. So naturally, I thought my first novel would be a masterpiece.
Did I ever learn some harsh, painful lessons.
It took a few years of writing before the rejection letters from agents went from a basic form letters to ones with feedback. Each writing technique I’ve learned was because an agent told me I needed improvement in that area. Point of View, Backstory, Scene, Sequel, and of course, the classic, Show, don’t Tell. Showing is such a difficult technique to learn because most of us tell stories and listen to others tell their stories. Telling comes naturally, and many writers in the past wrote beautiful stories by telling.
But today’s readers, especially with fast-moving video games, movies, television, computers, and everything else electronic, want to ‘see’ the action taking place, not ‘told’ about it. A writer skilled in Showing can make that happen.
But of all the techniques, story structure was the most difficult to learn.
I’d finally reached the point where I thought I had novel writing mastered. After rewriting my novel using the techniques I’d learned, I attended a conference and made one of those coveted ten-minute appointments with a top agent.
Waiting my turn in the narrow hallway crowded with other hopefuls, I went over my pitch. After all my hard work, I was finally going to have the chance to talk to an agent, and I didn’t want to blow it. When the agent’s assistant led me into the room, I kept my hands hidden so they wouldn’t see how badly I was shaking. Obviously, the agent could see how nervous I was, so she just chatted a few moments before asking me about my novel. I found, to my amazement, I could talk about my character much easier than I could talk about myself, so I told the agent about my character and my story. A few moments later, the assistant politely said our time was up. The agent stood, thanked me, shook my hand, and told me to send the manuscript to her. I walked out of that room on a cloud. I’d done it! She wanted to read my story. Even though I attended more classes at the conference, I remembered nothing else. The agent wanted to read my story!
Of course I sent it as soon as I got home, and I waited for a month, the longest, tortured month I’d ever spent. Even though I’d enclosed the standard SASE and watched the mailman arrive and leave every day, I knew from all I’d heard that an interested agent would call. I didn’t want to leave the house, afraid I’d get out of range of a cell phone.
When that day finally arrived and I saw my SASE from her, I was afraid to open it. I just knew it was a rejection. But something still hopeful inside of me desperately hoped she was going to say she loved it and would send a contract. I took a deep breath and opened it. And saw the letter she’d written. She’d loved the story, she said, and thought it was well-written. However, it didn’t follow the standard story structure and therefore, did not lead to story satisfaction. I needed to learn structure, and when I did, I could query again.
I was stunned. Story structure? What was that? I’d learned, from multiple classes and from my library of how-to books, every technique that had been suggested to me, but no one ever mentioned story structure. What was it and how could I learn it? I went back through my favorite novels, and sure enough, top reviewers commented on how well the story had been plotted. Okay, so why hadn’t I learned how to plot in the classes I’d taken?
I devoured all the how-to books offered online, in the libraries, sometimes traveling from one library to another, and at the bookstores. They all gave this vague notion of structure, but no one broke it down and explained. I wanted a step-by-step method, so I went on a quest to learn. I questioned writers I knew, and soon realized that not all of them knew a basic method, that some followed a best-selling book’s basic structure. Finally, I learned and began teaching it to my students. I wrote an ebook to help them understand, and now I offer it through my website. I only wished someone had written it years ago so I could’ve learned earlier.
But who knows. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to learn at that time. I had some personal issues to work through as well and had to come to terms with my personal life before I could learn something new, something so important that it changed everything in my writing. Time is a funny thing, and we all need time—to learn, to absorb what we’ve learned, and to season.
What is the basic male to female ratio at your company? Do you feel that this was a factor in your earning your position? In what way?
Since I’m the sole proprietor, I have none of the problems other women have had to endure.
When I first started to edit, I was concerned that men might not welcome a female editor, but that was not the case. My clients and students are a mixture of male and female, young and older, housewives and attorneys. They all have one thing in common: they want to learn to write. That’s the important leveler of race, sex, and profession.
Interview
by Chelle Cordero
Today we meet Brenda Hill, Author, Instructor, and Freelance Editor. Brenda shares some “glories and the agonies” of her career. “I hope it helps some new and not so new writers."
Can you briefly describe your job/position? Tell us a little bit about your company.
My husband and I owned a bookstore in Denver in the 1980s, and during that time, I met several writers. Since I’d previously been a proofreader for an aerospace corporation, many asked me to check their manuscripts. Word spread and soon I was proofing more and more manuscripts. I didn’t edit until much later, after I’d taken several writing classes and learned fiction writing techniques—which, by the way, is a never-ending process. I’m always learning.
After selling the bookstore, I concentrated on learning as much as I could about writing, and I began writing my own novel. I founded my editing business, joined an international critique group, and edited for a small press.
Today, I still edit, but because of time constraints, I concentrate on first chapters. They’re exciting, full of promise, and critical to a writer’s success. If an opening chapter drags or puts an editor to sleep, the rest of the wonderful story that follows will never be read.
I love working on first chapters. After listening to agents and acquiring editors talk about what they look for when reading a submission, I enjoy working with writers, making sure they’ve used the elements needed to interest a reader.
Have there been any major changes in the position’s responsibilities/description since you have been in the spot?
As I grew busier in my own writing career with novels, short stories, and writing for my Southern California newspaper, I cut back on editing full manuscripts. Just not enough time—or energy.
When I edit, I put as much effort into the project as if I were the one writing. If a paragraph or a sentence doesn’t flow, I rewrite and rewrite again and again until I feel that certain satisfaction when reading it. I may wind up cutting it, or, if it’s good but just doesn’t fit, I may move it. All of that takes time and effort, and now I don’t always have enough time, so I might recommend another editor. I’d rather lose the business than give anything but my best to my clients.
What kind of education or training do you have? Was this current position a goal of yours? What were your original career goals?
Most of my education about writing came later, starting with my bookstore days and then writing my own material.
When I started writing my novel, I thought, since I’d read profusely since childhood and was fairly good and English and grammar, I could write a good book. Just to be sure, I enrolled in a writing course at the community college. I wrote that novel and was very proud of myself and wasn’t shy about sending it out to agents. But, when the rejections started arriving, I couldn’t understand it. After all, I could read, loved to write, and I had a basic grasp of how a story should go. So naturally, I thought my first novel would be a masterpiece.
Did I ever learn some harsh, painful lessons.
It took a few years of writing before the rejection letters from agents went from a basic form letters to ones with feedback. Each writing technique I’ve learned was because an agent told me I needed improvement in that area. Point of View, Backstory, Scene, Sequel, and of course, the classic, Show, don’t Tell. Showing is such a difficult technique to learn because most of us tell stories and listen to others tell their stories. Telling comes naturally, and many writers in the past wrote beautiful stories by telling.
But today’s readers, especially with fast-moving video games, movies, television, computers, and everything else electronic, want to ‘see’ the action taking place, not ‘told’ about it. A writer skilled in Showing can make that happen.
But of all the techniques, story structure was the most difficult to learn.
I’d finally reached the point where I thought I had novel writing mastered. After rewriting my novel using the techniques I’d learned, I attended a conference and made one of those coveted ten-minute appointments with a top agent.
Waiting my turn in the narrow hallway crowded with other hopefuls, I went over my pitch. After all my hard work, I was finally going to have the chance to talk to an agent, and I didn’t want to blow it. When the agent’s assistant led me into the room, I kept my hands hidden so they wouldn’t see how badly I was shaking. Obviously, the agent could see how nervous I was, so she just chatted a few moments before asking me about my novel. I found, to my amazement, I could talk about my character much easier than I could talk about myself, so I told the agent about my character and my story. A few moments later, the assistant politely said our time was up. The agent stood, thanked me, shook my hand, and told me to send the manuscript to her. I walked out of that room on a cloud. I’d done it! She wanted to read my story. Even though I attended more classes at the conference, I remembered nothing else. The agent wanted to read my story!
Of course I sent it as soon as I got home, and I waited for a month, the longest, tortured month I’d ever spent. Even though I’d enclosed the standard SASE and watched the mailman arrive and leave every day, I knew from all I’d heard that an interested agent would call. I didn’t want to leave the house, afraid I’d get out of range of a cell phone.
When that day finally arrived and I saw my SASE from her, I was afraid to open it. I just knew it was a rejection. But something still hopeful inside of me desperately hoped she was going to say she loved it and would send a contract. I took a deep breath and opened it. And saw the letter she’d written. She’d loved the story, she said, and thought it was well-written. However, it didn’t follow the standard story structure and therefore, did not lead to story satisfaction. I needed to learn structure, and when I did, I could query again.
I was stunned. Story structure? What was that? I’d learned, from multiple classes and from my library of how-to books, every technique that had been suggested to me, but no one ever mentioned story structure. What was it and how could I learn it? I went back through my favorite novels, and sure enough, top reviewers commented on how well the story had been plotted. Okay, so why hadn’t I learned how to plot in the classes I’d taken?
I devoured all the how-to books offered online, in the libraries, sometimes traveling from one library to another, and at the bookstores. They all gave this vague notion of structure, but no one broke it down and explained. I wanted a step-by-step method, so I went on a quest to learn. I questioned writers I knew, and soon realized that not all of them knew a basic method, that some followed a best-selling book’s basic structure. Finally, I learned and began teaching it to my students. I wrote an ebook to help them understand, and now I offer it through my website. I only wished someone had written it years ago so I could’ve learned earlier.
But who knows. Perhaps I wasn’t ready to learn at that time. I had some personal issues to work through as well and had to come to terms with my personal life before I could learn something new, something so important that it changed everything in my writing. Time is a funny thing, and we all need time—to learn, to absorb what we’ve learned, and to season.
What is the basic male to female ratio at your company? Do you feel that this was a factor in your earning your position? In what way?
Since I’m the sole proprietor, I have none of the problems other women have had to endure.
When I first started to edit, I was concerned that men might not welcome a female editor, but that was not the case. My clients and students are a mixture of male and female, young and older, housewives and attorneys. They all have one thing in common: they want to learn to write. That’s the important leveler of race, sex, and profession.
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