Ode to the editor

It is difficult to speculate the speed of time. Oh, how swiftly it passes! It seems as if I had started contributing to the Short Take column only a year ago, although I completed five years this month.

I remember being nervous when I had sent my first piece. I had never thought that I would reach this far. The fact that I have written over 200 articles during this period makes me feel grateful towards my family and friends and my readers for continuously encouraging me. But it is the editor who deserves the most credit.

Editing is a tough task. Going through each and every line of the article, deleting some and rewriting other passages. It is quite taxing.

Editing is no five-finger exercise. Looming over the computer, pushing his glasses up with one hand while the other is busy typing; the keys of the computer forming a rhythmic sound; the words magically appearing on the screen; smiling inwardly, and praising the modern technology for the assistance; reading word by word, line by line and wondering whether the particular line is significant or not; spending even hours on a single article.



I realised this when I experienced the busy lives of editors recently, after I was appointed as one for my school magazine. Convincing others to send their parts. Correcting the improper grammar. More often than not, rewriting the sentences. Creating a sensible version of something which was incomprehensible initially. These were what occupied most of my time.

It made me realise that the job of an editor is much more challenging than an outsider can imagine.

A few of my friends believe the job of an editor is to simply go through the articles once and compile them while the writer is the one who does the hard job. If only they knew how wrong they were! If only they could understand the effort behind it all.

It’s not just collecting all the articles and glancing at them once. To make an article worth admiring, it requires the same amount of dedication and persistence that any other art does.

Ace American author Stephen King has rightly said, “To write is human. To edit is divine.”

(Published in The Gulf Today on December 17, 2016)