To write is human; to edit is divine*

Here’s something weird about the word edit:

 As a noun meaning “correction,” it is only about fifty years old. It is a shortening of the much older (late 18th century) noun, editor, which originally referred to a person in charge of printing prepared material (not someone who massaged, revised, corrected the work of a writer).

 Actually, that’s not the weird part.

 Edit comes from the Latin editus, meaning “brought forth,” and is the past participle of the verb edere. Still not weird. (From 60-70 percent of English words can trace their roots to Latin, sometimes indirectly through French, thanks to the Norman Conquest.)  

 Thanks for staying with me, friends. Here’s the pay-off:

 Latin has two closely related--but completely unrelated--verbs: edĕre (with short "e" in both syllables) meaning to bring forth, to produce, to edit; and  ēdĕre (with a long "ē" and short "e") meaning to eat. That does qualify as weird, yes?

 I have had a few editors who have “eaten” my writing, gobbled it whole. I have had editors who were not hungry at all, gave a cursory glance to the writing and pushed back from the table.

 For my new project, I am blessed—that is truly how I feel-- with an editor extraordinaire. She edits with curiosity, insight, respect, and the highest of standards. She edits from banked experience, from deep (hard-won) knowledge of the world of publishing, from a love of words. She is a sucker for a story well-told. Also, she is funny. Also, she is an aerial acrobat.

 When I told her that I would be sending in the manuscript for my new book, Everything Changes Everything this Friday (that is, a few days BEFORE deadline) she responded: “I cannot wait to get my grubby lil mitts on EVERYTHING. I will take her August 30th. I will take her September 1st. I will take her whenever she is ready to fly from your nest to mine.”

 Her mitts are anything but grubby. Her nest is the place I want to be. I can’t wait.

 Thank you, Renee Sedliar, for believing in my work and for all that you will now do it make it better. And thank you, Heather Jackson, veteran editor-turned literary agent. Without you in my corner, none of this would have happened.

*Stephen King, from On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft