Going for a walk helped me figure out a big issue

Kia ora,

I wasn’t at my desk, I wasn’t on the clock, I wasn’t actively thinking about the story at all, but the clichéd bolt of lightning hit me as I heaved my way up a hill, getting blasted by a full-on southerly straight from Antarctica: the tense was wrong.

I’d been working on a travel memoir for a few days, and while the prose was strong, something was off. But I couldn’t figure out what was off. When this happens, I keep editing and keep mulling over the story. The issue comes to me eventually.

With this edit, it came to me on my slog up that hill. 

The author had written the story in the present tense. Quick refresher:

• Present tense: I walk up the hill.
• Past tense: I walked up the hill.
• Future tense: I will walk up the hill.

(Strictly speaking, English has twelve tenses. Or maybe its sixteen. I’m keeping things simple here. Do not ask me to break them all down. I will cry.)

Now, present tense for travel memoir can definitely work, but for this story, it wasn’t landing. For the rest of my walk, I considered the tense, playing around with the scenes and shifting text around in my mind (this distracted me from focusing on just how unfit I am). By the time I got to the top, I was convinced: change the tense and the narrative would fall into place.

On Monday I got to my desk and started experimenting. I copied a few paragraphs into a fresh doc and started changing those tenses, careful not to change all of them; some of the present tense worked – the parts where the author was speaking from “the now” needed to stay in the present tense. For everything else, into the past it went.

And it worked. The narrative was clearer, the message smoother. The off feeling was gone.

But I didn’t just go ahead and slap the past tense onto the entire manuscript. A change that huge needs to be handled with care. I didn’t want to complete my edit (tense changes included) and send it back to the author without them having a say.

That would be too big and too much for the author to deal with, and just plain bad editorial practice.

So I talked to them. I showed them the before and after, and I explained my reasoning for making the change.

I gave them the freedom to choose. If they wanted to keep the present tense, then we’d do that and I’d continue with my edit. But if they wanted to go with the past tense, then I’d make the changes (and do all my other editing, of course). Sure, I put forward a strong case for making the change, but ultimately, it was their memoir, their name on the cover.

They went for the past tense.

And it made all the difference.

So, what’s my point here? I have a few:

1. I want you to have the final say about how you tell your story. Even when I’m making much smaller edits than changing the tense for the entire story, you’re in control. I make changes directly to the text using track changes, but for bigger changes, I use comment bubbles to explain what the issue is and how you could fix it.
2. If I see something funky going on with your story, I’m going to tell you about it. The sooner you know, the sooner we can work out what direction to take. Maybe that means I hand the manuscript back to you early. I’d rather do that than continue to plough on regardless. The last thing I want is for me to do a careful copy edit only for you to scrap it and rewrite huge sections.
3. Editing is collaborative. I’m not here to tell you what to write or how to write. You’ve done the hard part in getting the story out and revising it and getting it as crisp as you can make it. It’s my job to work with you, to build on what you’ve done, hone your message, and make the text as clear as possible.
4. I’m thinking about your story even when I’m not actively working on it. Your adventures work their way into my brain, and it’s during that off-the-clock time (out on a walk, cooking dinner, pulling weeds) that ideas can spring forth.

Editing is an act of trust, and it’s a responsibility I take seriously.

If you want to see what editing can do for your travel memoir, book a call with me or get my eyeballs on your manuscript with a sample edit. Both are free.

Seriously, I want your story to get lodged in my brain.

Cheers, Deborah

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📚 What I’m reading

Our Home in Myanmar: Four years in Yangon, by Jessica Mudditt.

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📅 Availability

I have one space left for mid-February, then I’m booking from March. Get in touch if you want a sample edit so you can see what editing can do for your story.

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✍️ Ways to work with me

Apply for a free sample edit​

​Get your manuscript edited

Read the Base Camp Writing blog

Check out my self-publishing guides

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