Editing

The Most Important Mindset For Building Your Skill Set

The Most Important Mindset For Building Your Skill Set

Garth Beyer

Mindset, Skill set, Success

There’s a particular mindset that makes you indispensable, a true linchpin.

It is a commitment to see a project through.

I’ve had (emphasis on past tense) team members who started a project with me, but then ran away when real work was in order.

We’ve all had people tell us they will do something, then fail to do it.

I’ve made my own mistakes of sitting back, too. A perfect example is Curb Magazine.

As managing editor, I’m involved in the entire process of making a magazine from scratch. From philosophy ideation, all the way through the launch and distribution of the final product. I work with four different teams (editorial, online, creative, and business) to reach distribution.

After we submit our design to the press house, and before distribution, the press house gives our publisher a proof copy of what they will print. Instead of getting involved in the last proofing process (the last chance to make any corrections to the magazine), I let my other team leaders handle it.

I didn’t see the process through, and, as a result of leaving the rest of the project to them (and no insult to their talent), two words are missing at the bottom of the first page of my story in the printed version of the magazine… all 10,000 of our one-time printed version. #lessonlearned

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All of the skills businesses, companies, agencies, and leaders look for… they all make up the mindset of one’s commitment to a project, to their work, to passion.

When you get in the habit of seeing things all the way through, there’s no doubt you learn and strengthen all the skills employers and team members look for.

When you don’t follow through, you bring everyone down and hold yourself back.

 

Stay Positive & They’re Not Kidding When They Say Success Is A Mindset, Not A Skill List

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So You Found A Typo

Garth Beyer

I make typos every now and then. Sometimes I find them myself when I go back and read what I’ve written. Sometimes others find them after months of my blog post or book being published. The question I’ve wrestled with when editing writing is what does it mean to have a typo?

One could argue it means I’m lazy, I hired a terrible editor or I forgot to hit spell check.

One could also argue it means I’m human, that I’ve read and reread what I’ve written so many times to make sure I got the right message across that I just couldn’t catch small typos. I call it being lost in the magic.

Typos are one of authors’ largest fears and disappointments. When we publish a book, we dislike when people find a blemish. It detracts from the purpose of the reading and it confuses the readers because now they are wondering if we know about the typo? Should they email us? How did it happen, anyway?

I appreciate authors like Seth Godin who live up to the typos and solve the issue. Godin’s newest book is out now and he has a page where you can let him know if you found a typo.

When quality is a given, small mistakes like a typo can be an opportunity to delight, to connect.

For those who write, welcome the connection. For those who read, reach out. I’ve never talked to an author who was upset about someone pointing out a typo.

 

Stay Positive & Who Knows, You May Be Rewarded

A Bit On Voice

Garth Beyer

Without any legitimate training in the understanding of artistic material, you can tell good from bad.

You may not be a graphic design expert, but I trust you can look at a website and tell if it is designed really well.

You may never have touched an instrument other than the pots and pans of your mother’s cupboard, but I will bet you can tell when an orchestra is in harmony.

You may think you’re a terrible writer, but when you read something someone else has written, I just know you can tell if the writer has voice or not.

Everything in life speaks to us, but only if it’s given a voice.

A lot happens, rather, doesn’t happen when a writer fails to have voice in their writing. When there’s no voice, there’s also no humanity in the piece, no node for the reader to connect to, no electricity.

Peter Elbow refers to voice as juice. “’Juice’ combines the qualities of magic potion, mother’s milk, and electricity,” Elbow said.

By ‘magic potion’ he implies there is power in the words, power to change the reader’s emotions, power to produce an entire world in one’s imagination, power to turn someone’s worldview over in a pan and call it sunny side up.

In mother’s milk you receive the nutrients you need to grow. Voice is a way of using words to express how much you care about a subject, and, by extension, the reader. Words that nurture the reader, giving them all they need and more, those words have voice; you might even say your mother’s voice.

As for the electricity I have mentioned, it’s about conversation and establishing an experience. Do you know what I mean?

That, right there is a question I’ve posed to you through the written word. Your engagement level rose, perhaps you answered the question, perhaps not. If you did, that is because there is voice in my writing. Maybe you wanted me to explain more of what I meant or in your mind added to my side of the conversation.

Conversations have energy and develop experiences.

Voice, in a way, is energy. Words can touch a person, pat them on the back, tap them on the shoulder, and stroke fingers through their hair. If you type words the way you say them conversationally, that’s how to find your voice. Then you can proceed to clean up the flow, but not too much.

Elbow also disccusses the potential and often-occurring action of overcorrection. You may have voice in your writing and through editing, remove the voice. Making all the corrections you can, editing something so it reads and looks perfect, takes out the humanity of the writing, and humanity is what people connect with. Notice the spelling mistake at the beginning of this paragraph. It reminds you I am only human.

While removing all spelling errors doesn’t quite remove your voice, reworking sentences so they are completely grammatically accurate can. When you make writing flawless, the reader thinks a robot is talking to them. No one wants to be spoken to by a robot. Unless, of course, they are a robot.

 

Stay Positive & Everything You Do, Do With Voice

The Writer’s Kiss

Garth Beyer

If you’re a writer, be a writer.

If you’re an editor, be an editor.

They are two different lifestyles and they have a peculiar way of, not entwining, but meeting each other.

Writing is like kissing a girl, you (the guy, the writer) go 90% of the way. You have the ideas, you put words to paper, you apply the foundation and build the structure of a story. The girl goes the other 10% of the way. She does the editing, the grammar, the mechanics.

You meet, you kiss,, you both leave each others lips stronger, more assured, more confident in it working out. The perfect kiss. The perfect writing.