Edited

Maybe it's a coincidence but in the last week I've had my work rewritten by a couple of editors.

I've been writing for publication since the early 1990s. I have taken advice from a few editors. More often than not there are more pressing matters for an editor than changing the sequence of a sentence.

In my own editing I've learned that personal style needs to be flexible. One picks their battle with another writer.

As I wrote to one editor, it's interesting to learn what catches the eye. Which parts of sequence of words suggests a gap in meaning.

For me there have been two different edits to my work that have underlined details.

The first was hearing from RealTime that they wanted more discussion of plot in my review of Basin. I added a paragraph but the editor added words to it to cover more narrative ground.

The next was ABC Open, who also wanted a bit more detail but added an ellipsis to my text. This echoes my earlier observation about personal style because I loathe seeing ellipses used unless they're showing text has been omitted from a quotation.

So, in the case of the former, I've accepted the shortcoming in my review, but; in the latter example, I've requested the editor undo their changes.