OK, so these are MY top five editor complaints. As in, when I have to edit the work of my fellow freelancers–these are my top gripes. I’ve gotten some decent money revising the work of other writers when my poor harried editors simply don’t have the time to do it themselves. Trust me, when the time comes for YOU to sit in my place and do a bit of freelance editing (or when you take a job as an editor yourself) you will find your own list of major pet peeves. At least ONE of my list will end up on yours, I have no doubt:
5. Deadline abuse. Meeting deadlines is the most basic area of good freelancing, and one of the biggest complaints. I know many of you are scratching your head right now wondering why anyone would blow a good paying gig by missing deadlines–and you folks are the ones who make editors smile. Fortunately for you, a good portion of your competition takes themselves out of the running just by goofing up this one simple thing.
4. Improper style and tone. There’s a reason all the freelancer magazines and websites tell you to read several copies of a magazine before querying. There’s a vast difference between National Geographic and Boys’ Life. Both may cover topics about wildlife, but good freelancers know there’s a huge stylistic difference. Does the publication you want to write for use third person exclusively? Is first person writing acceptable? What about the use of contractions? If you don’t know whether your target publication prints “can’t” instead of “cannot”, you might not be ready to write for them just yet. Your research phase can tell you a lot–if you know how to look.
3. Abuse of the apostrophe. This is a cardinal sin in my book. In my little corner of the freelance world, if you don’t know how to use a contraction properly, don’t even bother writing a query letter. “They’re” is a contraction of “they are“. “There” refers to a place. Same goes for the rules of possesives versus plurals. People who put signs up in storefront windows reading “Open seven day’s” should be drawn and quartered as a lesson to the rest.
2. Pointless use of adjectives. Another one of the sins that can get you automatically blacklisted if your copy comes across MY desk. There is absolutely NO NEED to use words like “avuncular”, or “didactic”. My personal most-hated use of adjectives happens every single night on the 5 o’clock news. Since there’s no such thing as a “life-giving shooting spree”, saying the phrase “deadly shooting spree” is pointless. We all know what happens when there’s a shooting rampage, thanks.
1. Poor subject-object relationships. What’s wrong with this sentence? “Bob threw the television against the office wall. When it broke with a loud crash, everyone in the office heard the noise.” This kind of bad writing is–at least in my own case– the result of first-draft writing that didn’t get a close enough look afterwards. An easy mistake or oversight to make, but one that makes editors pull their hair out and curse the day they took the job. The way to fix our example sentence? Identify what broke with the loud crash:
“Bob threw the television against the office wall. Everyone in the office heard the crash.”
or
“Bob threw the television against the office wall. There was a loud crash.”
or
“Bob threw the television against the office wall. The crash startled everyone in the office. ”
These pet peeves may not cost you the gig, but being ruthless with your deadlines and copy will endear you to those who have to deal with your writing on a regular basis. I personally have been given top priority for freelance assignments for no other reason than the editor knows they can count on my work being turned in on time and with few rewrites. It’s easy enough to do. My personal favorite technique for scanning my own copy? I pretend that I’ve just gotten the article in questions for a last-minute editorial review before publishing. Do I want my name attached to this copy I’m currently about to approve? If not, I go back to the editing process one…more…time.