Thursday, February 19, 2009

Denis Johnson's editor

At least for "Tree of Smoke" and "Nobody Move" (the Playboy serial that comes out as a book in April).

Dave Cole.

4 comments:

Mike Boyle said...

Interesting. I find editing mode much like sculpure; I wonder if he sees that connection?

Goddamn winter's draggin...

Matt DiGangi said...

The funniest description of editing I've got so far was from James Greco when I asked him if I could edit one of his stories. He said it was all Lego cities to him.

If you moved from Fist City to Edge City, it'd probably get warmer.

Daniel Porder said...

Obscure details and grammar, hmm... Not quite the Lish/Carver model. Editors should edit, not simply approve. Of course, I’d rather see Johnson’s prose than Cole’s...

Matt DiGangi said...

Editing takes a lot of different shapes. Acquisitions, development, line editing, copyediting, grammar, fact checking, proofreading. Like anything, you get to start as an asshole and work your way up.