Everybody needs an editor

A truth about writing and life, plus my weekly shareables: a stolen Picasso, life as a waitress, and the enigma of MrBeast

My work before an editor gets ahold of it. (Photo by Sven Brandsma on Unsplash)

A quick note: If you’re looking for a last-minute Father’s Day gift, why not a subscription to The Writing Shed? You don’t even have to wrap it. And if you’ve bought him something already, it’s OK to give him TWO gifts. He won’t keel over.

You have probably read the work of Robert Gottlieb even if you didn’t know it. He died this week at 92, having edited dozens of books that were not just bestsellers but classics. Joseph Heller’s CATCH-22, Toni Morrison’s BELOVED, Salman Rushdie’s SATANIC VERSES, John le Carré spy thrillers: Gottlieb made them better.

His major work was editing Robert Caro’s books, including his still-unfinished epic series on Lyndon Johnson. Caro’s first book was THE POWER BROKER, his biography of Robert Moses, the man who shaped 20th-century New York. The draft Caro turned in was a million words. Gottlieb helped him cut 350,000. (By comparison, my book THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM was about 70,000 words. Caro and Gottlieb put the equivalent of FIVE of my books in the trash pile. I’m not sure I would ever get over that.)

The Paris Review did an epic piece back in 1994 where they interviewed a group of Gottlieb’s authors and then shared some of their comments so Gottlieb could respond. It’s very long but if you love writing and creating it’s an incredible document of how to collaborate and make a work of art the best it can be.

There are so many good stories in the piece—le Carré finally getting Gottlieb to buy him lunch is a highlight—but I beamed when I got to the part where Michael Crichton (THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, JURASSIC PARK) said this:

But I’ll tell you, I think every writer should have tattooed backwards on his forehead, like ambulance on ambulances, the words everybody needs an editor.

My wife was a newspaper editor for more than 25 years and still edits the occasional project. She has seen the shitty first drafts (and sometimes shitty second and third drafts) from countless writers, including me. Every time some author starts to ramble, or some politician loses the audience in a speech, or whenever somebody does something with words that grates on our souls, we look at each other and say: everybody needs an editor.

I’ve been blessed with so many great editors in my life—I’ve written about Jay Lovinger and Frank Barrows, but they’re just two of many. I’ll run through a wall for Jofie Ferrari-Adler at Avid Reader Press, who edited ELEPHANT and will also be putting out my dog book. (Look in your inboxes early next week, I hope, for big news on that front.)

We can all use a good edit now and then, and not just in our stories. The people we trust to guide and advise us are some of the most important people we’ll ever know. And if you’re able to help others lead better lives, you’re a treasure. There’s such a delicate balance between trying to fix somebody and helping them figure out how to fix themselves.

Nobody does it alone. If you’ve found the right editor in your life, hang on.

10 things I wanted to share this week:

1. My weekly for WFAE was on school reassignment in Charlotte, and why it wasn’t quite worth “human chain” levels of protest.

2. Dan Barry, one of my favorite writers, spins a helluva tale of an inadvertent art heist and one awesome dad. (NYT)

3. My buddy Matt Crossman on the joys of looking ridiculous. Although I think he pulls off a cowboy hat pretty well for a guy from St. Louis. (The Accidental Adventurer)

4. I have sort of avoided learning much about MrBeast, even though he’s from North Carolina, because “guy who games YouTube to make millions” is not someone I thought I wanted to know about. But this piece from Max Read made me care, and poses a really good question: If somebody is doing good in the world, does matter how and why he does it? (NYT)

5. DOG NEWS: While I work on my book, I’m devoting this slot to dog stories. This week: From the May 22 New Yorker, a cartoon by Tom Toro.

   

6. My mom was a waitress at a Denny’s for 18 years, and even though it was a grueling job, she came home every day knowing she’d done honest work. I thought of her when I read Becca Schuh’s essay on being a writer and a server. (Dirt)

7. The story that walloped me the hardest this week was Desiree Cooper’s essay on raising her three grandkids alone. (NYT)

8. This piece explaining the genius of Vermeer is very good, but I just wanted to say that somehow I had never seen “View of Delft” and now I’m obsessed with it. (The Atlantic)

9. If you’re interested in that Vermeer piece you should definitely see TIM’S VERMEER, a documentary on an inventor who tries to figure out how Vermeer so precisely captured light. (Trailer on YouTube)

10. This month is the 75th anniversary of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” maybe the greatest short story of all time, and definitely the one most lodged in my memory. If you have never run across it, I won’t spoil it for you. Read it first, and then watch this short film version. You will not forget either one. (New Yorker)
    

    See y’all next week, everybody.