ARTS4000
CreatedHere Magazine
September 3rd, 2021
ARTS 4000 Final Project Report
As an Online Editor for CreatedHere, a local non-profit art magazine based in Fredericton, NB, I was able to dip my toes in a field of interest to determine if an editorial career path was suitable for me.
The role was somewhat curated for me as I indicated a preference for editing as opposed to writing and interviewing for articles. It was my job to help emerging writers and artists gain experience in the publishing field and to foster and encourage further interest in the field.
The initial intention of my research was to inform me of how I could apply what I was learning at CreatedHere to the job I wished to create for myself in the future within the publishing industry as an independent book publisher, but I changed my mind as I started doing more research.
As a result, the research I ended up doing was more beneficial in hindsight than as a preventative measure for navigating potential challenges (which I of course encountered).
As such, the research component will be presented as a study between what I did, and what I should have done. I will highlight challenges I encountered, and demonstrate (where applicable) how I overcame those challenges.
Some I did not do very well, and I can say that honestly. My placement has not been completed and I still have hours to do, so for what it's worth, I will apply what I can in the final stretch.
CreatedHere, an art magazine out of Fredericton, New Brunswick, started in 2014 as a sole proprietorship and produced eight issues under the former owner, Marie-Hélène Morell.
In Fall 2019, CreatedHere Magazine became a federally registered non-profit corporation with the mandate to ensure New Brunswick artists are known and valued both in-province and beyond the borders.
CreatedHere aims to promote local artists by providing a high-quality publication under curated themes that seek to provide a tangible gallery. CreatedHere identifies artists, projects, and events, and offers online submission calls to make art and stories accessible and approachable to wide audiences with social themes from the environment and mental health to creativity and identity.
CreatedHere publishes predominantly creative non-fiction, which I actually found simpler to understand than I thought I would. In my mind, there was always something cloudy and unidentifiable about creative non-fiction.
There is a section in "Creative Nonfiction in the Crosshairs" by Lee Gutkind, that describes the difference between journalism and nonfiction and cleared everything right up for me. In Gutkind's words, "Both write true stories and include factual information." (Gutkind, 4).
He goes on to describe the main difference, which is that journalism strives to be objective while "creative non-fiction writers are encouraged to be subjective."
Once I understood this distinction, something clicked, and I was able to jump right on board with editing this genre. In fact, I instantly became more comfortable because I wouldn't have to be so careful with fact-checking or feeling out of my depth if I had to edit an article on a topic with which I was unfamiliar.
From a research standpoint, I didn't have to really look out for libel, or embarrassing fact-checking errors, as the views of the author did not need to be corroborated beyond personal experience in a certain sense.
In Creative Nonfiction, it's more about the narrative and storytelling in an unconstrained way and taking sides as opposed to playing the fence, which, as a Creative Writing Major, I felt utterly capable of doing.
Since I had very little knowledge about Magazines and journalism, Creative Nonfiction bridged the gap for me to move forward.
For the purposes of creative non-fiction at CreatedHere, I consistently found the genre never fell in the same place; while some pieces were more journalistic in approach with an interview and quotes involved with fact-based evidence, others were more like storytelling with poetic phrasing and personal anecdotes.
There are set issues that come out quarterly. The timing of the issue I was working on meant they all had something in common: the prompt was 'What is creativity?'.
Finding common ground between articles made it easier to work through them in quick succession. If I had more time with CreatedHere, I imagine the style would have presented itself in a more obvious way as I worked with more and more artists, but as it stood, it was a significant challenge finding "house" style as a newcomer.
Creative non-fiction seems to be a genre of delicate balances—a balance between personal truth and self-expression. Gutkind states that "though personal experience or memoir can be, and oftentimes is, the most important piece, it can easily be overdone." (4)
This was a niche challenge I ran into at times that I did not know how to handle at first, and it took me some time to understand just what the problem was.
How do you correct a story that doesn't have a story and state that in such a way that the article writer will be receptive to it?
Alternatively, what if there is a personal story, but then it's missing the connection with reality and/or lacks a main message or point?
How, as an editor, do you decide where sections need to come back down to the ground because it seems to be floating? Being able to articulate these things took the most time for me because I could intuitively understand what the blockage was and how to fix it, but providing explanations for why I changed things was difficult, and the main issue I was consistently facing was the "encouragement" portion.
Prior to my research and despite years of interest in the publishing industry, I never realized the sheer number of types of editors or how many avenues one could go within the editing world. I have never been particularly interested in journalism personally, so perhaps that is a reason I was so floored when I came across this overwhelming list (Dent 15).
My personal interest has always been with book publishing, and I know a little bit about business publishing because my family owned a tourism magazine that sold ads across Western Canada called Visitor's Choice International Guide, but it was a family business, so it was very small.
Imagine my surprise when I see a list of types of editors larger than my entire family's staff team across the board. The familiar terms included in the list ranged from Editor in Chief, News Editor, and Managing Editor, to Copy Editor and Assistant Editor, but there are a total of 18 positions in the editing field that go on with explanations going by "Careers in Journalism", at least in this source. There were 19 broad editing roles included in a list from "The Layers of Magazine Editing" (Evans 45).
It makes me wonder just how you figure out what you're good at? How do you figure out where you're meant to be other than through trial and error? I have not found a better answer to that question beyond, "Yes, through trial and error."
My role at CreatedHere was called Online Editor, and going by the definitions of "Careers in Journalism", my role was a blend of Copy Editor and Assistant Editor. There was another layer to my role, however.
Seeing as articles came to me at every stage and not necessarily at a level that is publishable, the type of editing I did varied and went across the spectrum from Substantive to Proofreading.
It required switching gears quickly and a versatility in skills that I struggled with at first; I have a lot of the necessary skills, but I'd never married some of them together before. A direct example of this: I understand grammar, I understand storytelling, and I am a fairly strong communicator.
On paper, those are easy things to combine at once, but add "give a gentle delivery and concise explanation of how to do all of the above to a first-time writer" and that gets harder.
My job was to find a balance between improving the ability of artists and writers to present their ideas professionally while giving them a positive experience of writing about their work that would reduce self-doubt, increase confidence, and encourage continued practice.
If I wasn't careful, I could cause a bad experience and change the course of someone's career and cause self-doubt in artists, and that felt like a huge weight, which likely was the reason I became overcome with self-doubt at times.
The submissions process for context: CreatedHere sends out a submission call with a request for a short pitch of an article with accompanying artwork that would be used for the article.
The submissions are collected and reviewed by a committee and placed in one of three categories based on rubric criteria: print publication, online publication, or declined, but encouraged to submit again in the future.
There is a difference in submission calibre between print and online, but the end result of each is relatively the same (if I did my job correctly that is.).
In addition, since it's a magazine publishing articles about artwork and artists, it's a lot more flexible in topic and style, the genre being creative non-fiction and not traditional journalism.
I collected all submitted articles from the selection of approved pitches for the 17th issue on Creativity and determined the order of the articles I would work through based on what needed most to least work in case I ran out of time by the end and found myself needing more time (which I did).
I would go through my own little checklist of informal criteria: is the message clear and is there a thesis?
Does all the information included contribute to this message?
Does the tone fit the narrative and story being told? (etc.etc.)
If these were missing, I put these articles first in my list because they were likely to require substantive editing. If they were present, I moved on with my checklist.
Is there obvious repetition in word choice?
Is there repetition in the message, restating the same details in different ways?
Are there instances where word choice is vague?
Are there any references that are not immediately understood and need a clarifying sentence?
If there were a couple of these things, I put those articles next in the line editing category.
For the final category, which was more or less proofreading, if there were one or two minor things to be addressed, I addressed them but also moved on to the simple grammar and punctuation mistakes, adjusting sentences for flow and varying sentence beginnings where it was required.
For all articles, I used track changes in Word and comments in the margin, doing my best to explain the changes I made in a reader-friendly way.
I would use the strikethrough feature where I made suggestions for removal and a comment about why and how it could be fixed.
I did my best to never make a comment about something to be fixed without also providing possible solutions so the author of the article could learn from it and see it themselves; I wanted them to feel like they were a part of the process.
This is different, I think, than what is typically done in the industry, but it was my job to provide a first stepping stone into the publishing world and to provide some experience to learn from. It is my understanding, and experience as a writer, that editing is not really approached like 'workshopping' in classes.
Issues in the text are not sugar-coated, and it's not that I was told to sugarcoat, but sometimes there were so many issues, I felt bad about being honest so I found myself holding back on more than one occasion.
My work experience, for my age, is quite vast and diverse. I have worked in many industries, and as a result, I have a strong and adaptable repertoire of skills that I can always rely on.
I worked bussing tables starting at fourteen and started writing a novel.
I was an authority figure managing chefs and servers at once as an expeditor from fifteen to sixteen and published my novel at the tail end of sixteen.
At seventeen, I was a pastry chef, and then a waitress, fine dining server, and administrative assistant at eighteen.
I was a virtual closed-captioner and model at nineteen, a government worker at twenty, and a transcriber at twenty-one.
Now, I have editing experience under my belt at twenty-two, and I can say without a doubt, this role has challenged me far more than any previous job before. This is also the most engaging job I've ever had, and I've experienced the most personal growth through this job despite my placement being just over four months.
I reference my previous work for several reasons. One, to illustrate I am adaptable to changing work environments, and two, to show that I have held positions in the past where I had to be a leader and authority figure. Feelings were never involved in that process.
I used to lead chefs and servers at the same time to get timings, organizing food to get it to the correct tables, organizing all food runners, etc. (this is what Gordon Ramsay does on Hell's Kitchen. That was my job at 16). It requires quite a lot of self-confidence, particularly given I was managing adults as a teenager.
I had a lot of issues with applying that to this role with deadlines, and with giving constructive criticism, because I felt responsible for how that information was taken. I made quite a few mistakes, but I always did my best. Sometimes my best was not good enough.
At times I felt a little out of my depth, and there were some circumstances near the end of my placement that severely impacted my ability to deliver.
One of the most significant struggles I had was juggling radically different styles and qualities of articles at once. I worked with many artists over the summer, and all had a unique voice and way of communicating their ideas and speaking about their art.
At times, it was difficult to understand if I was encountering a weakness in writing or simply coming across a style I was simply not personally partial to.
In the end, as long as the articles were clear, active, and giving something new to the reader — be it a new genre of art to look at, or a new perspective to view the world — I more or less kept things as is.
Oftentimes, artists neglected to speak about their own artwork, which I found slightly strange, but it offered a way for me to pull on threads to open artists up and to get them to speak their truth and be honest on the page, a prospect that can be terrifying at the best of times.
Another significant challenge was deadlines. It gave me a real sense of clarity and appreciation for editors because I had only ever been on the opposite side as the writer. I believe there is a sense of disconnect between the two, and I can fully appreciate both sides now.
As a writer, it never occurred to me the various responsibilities of the editor, of a content calendar, of timing different projects to have them coming out at particular times.
In addition, given it's the summer, it was sometimes difficult to anticipate timing because artists did not state they'd be on vacation, and I'd receive an automated email informing me they'd be out of office for 'x' amount of time.
It became difficult to stay on track with what I was trying to accomplish, and I had some significant downtimes where I wouldn't have much on the editing side until I received something back.
I had initially staggered them out in an attempt to not be bombarded with them all at once, but that is how it ended up happening anyway. I am still currently trying to finish them all up with my remaining hours to complete.
Further issues I ran into: understanding the balance between what is meant and what is being stated and bridging the gaps for the reader, maintaining the integrity of the author's voice while improving the quality of the whole if there are significant shifts in voice between paragraphs through word choice and sentence structures (particularly if the artist does not know how to do this,) since I was working with artists who were new to the process of writing.
It felt like an imbalance a lot of the time where I felt the need to pick up the slack. I would leave comments in the margin to be addressed.
I experienced a tug-of-war with myself at times, because I wanted to, on one hand, change as little as possible to maintain the author's voice, and on another, make the changes I would want to see as the reader because I am a writer first and editor second.
I sometimes fought with myself over wanting to rewrite the article and to say things differently and that was a significant challenge I had, though I never wanted to do that.
In the end, the way I balanced that instinct was to comment on those sentences or sections that gave me pause and offer an alternative way to say it to be clearer in quotes, asking what they thought about it and respecting what the author decided.
I was surprised to find most times they agreed with my assessment. As this happened more and more frequently, I started to loosen up. I was very hard on myself, and I think in some ways, still am.
As I worked through more and more articles, I felt more self-assured. In terms of editing, I felt most confident in the grammar side of editing as opposed to substantive and found I was a lot more engaged when articles required only proofreading.
My favourite tasks were concerning proofreading, be it articles or the finalized proofs of outgoing magazine issues.
I have an eagle eye for discrepancies, and it never felt like work. I find editing my own work a lot more difficult in that regard, so I am sure this will be a funny, and perhaps seemingly unsubstantiated statement if my paper is riddled with editing errors.
In The Layers of Magazine Editing, there is a section that would have been very helpful to me before I started the process. My ongoing research, particularly with my last-minute shift, was less relevant as I was moving along.
It was personally interesting, but not adding to my paper in a meaningful way. As a result of switching gears again, a lot of my most beneficial research was a little late to the party, and I did not have the chance to integrate it into my work directly.
Therefore, the majority of my research will be conducted in a way to inform the problems I faced and how I would navigate them now as a result of being armed with both more experience and industry know-how.
Due to the nature of my "nurturing" role, and the fact that it was, for the most part, first-time writers I was working with, I had the feeling of walking on eggshells, and not being as honest as I felt I should have been.
For those who had clearly done it before, I was a lot more honest and it was a much smoother process, but for those whose first language was French, or people who up-front stated they had never written before, I found myself unintentionally holding back.
"Good editors take no delight in rewriting someone else's copy; if an editor has to make heavy revisions, then he has failed somewhere along the line. Perhaps the topic wasn't that interesting after all. The idea might not be right for the magazine. He left too little time for the writer to do thorough research. He failed to follow-up with the writer during the research and writing stage. Or maybe he just chose the wrong writer for the job. Whatever the reason, he is now stuck with the job of dismantling, and rebuilding an article that the writer was supposed to have delivered in good shape. This task does not bring with it feelings of power, importance, and superiority. It makes the editor feel stupid." (Evans xv)
Unpacking that quote a little bit, because it's a long one: I think it's essential, and I learned quite a bit from it. So, the reason I included the contextual piece about the selections process is for this reason. I did not have a say, not that I am saying I should have. But, there is the proposal that is approved, and then there is what is submitted.
I collected the proposals, but I was not there for the discussions about each one, and I think in the future, all editors, whether they have a say or not, should be there to listen to the discussion to see what exactly is being asked of the writers. It is very hard for the editor to guide a piece if the intended direction was not communicated.
I felt the disconnect here big-time, particularly given the fact that I am new, and don't know the readership of CreatedHere; sometimes, I was made to make executive decisions on what was best for the article without knowing exactly how to make that decision.
When I asked for help, I did receive help, but it was usually along the lines of "go with your gut." Sound advice; I think that when I went against my gut is when I encountered issues; but there was something missing that I could not articulate at the time.
There is the added pressure in the online platform not being traditional in the sense that most were first-time writers. I felt like I was constantly battling unfinished pieces and that when I was done with them, they were no longer written in the author's words.
An example of this would be, in a first draft, using words like "very amazing" consistently or using the word "creative" eight times in a single paragraph, and a grand total of twenty times in a 700-word article.
In some cases, there were articles where there were more fragment sentences than full sentences. It made me feel a little strange pointing it out because I didn't want to make them feel stupid, or discourage them with an article sent back entirely red when it wasn't ready as a first draft, nor could I really explain using the grammar jargon because if that was a concept they understood, the mistake would not have been repetitively made.
So, I ended up playing surgeon because I wasn't sure how to balance edits and it made my job much larger. In a very few instances, I did not trust the writers, and I felt ashamed in feeling that way.
Taking the sentences point by point though: I did not take delight in rewriting; I felt guilty for feeling the need to do it for the sake of a better article. On heavy revisions being the editor's fault: yeah, probably I caused some unnecessary anxiety.
Some key decisions were not in my power, but the ones that were and that I know I could have done better with?: too little time for back and forth and failing to follow up and assuming writers would meet the deadline.
Worse than that, I had several instances of bypassed deadlines, and I felt pushy in asking for drafts back. I needed to be far more assertive in this regard, and I think ultimately, that was the worst problem I had. Enforcing deadlines. I was not good at it, and it has caused (and will cause) my entire last two weeks to be an utter scramble.
"Keep in touch", is one of the big things mentioned (126), and "Be frank and clear" (127). Skirting around issues does not help anyone, nor does unnecessary embellishment of what was good take away the need to be honest about what was not working.
I felt the need to be "nice" as opposed to "honest", and I have never felt that way before. I don't know if it was because of the job description itself, or my own weird feelings about it, but I encountered it.
One thing I am happy to see I did right was to read the article in its entirety with no intention to edit the first go around. In Chapter 7 of The Layers of Magazine Editing, Evans equates reading the first draft with the intention of editing to judging a statue on the proportion of a finger without looking at the hand (134).
There are nuances that won't be understood until you reach the conclusion of the article, and to remove something before understanding its purpose, warranted or not, is a disservice to the writer.
Read it like a reader holding the magazine would read it the first time. They are not looking for the problems, they are looking to understand. So, for the most part, I did this. There were, however, a couple of instances where the writing was so unclear I couldn't get through it without scribbling question marks everywhere.
"1. Does the article make any sense?
2. Does the article represent a good fit for this magazine?
3. Is the tone right for the topic, for the magazine, and for the audience?" (136)
I am happy to say that this is also something I know I got right. I did ask these questions for the preliminary editing. Though I had issues knowing exactly what CreatedHere was looking for, and what readers were looking for, part of that was eliminated in the sense that the proposals were approved for me.
However, the articles went directly to me and I was to edit them. So, I couldn't really verify if the tone was correct for the magazine or for readers because my placement was so short. I did the best I could with executive decisions, and I feel sure I did the articles justice.
I think in the future, if I ever take on an editing job, I would want to steer clear of 'nurturing' specific roles, or roles directly involving first-time writers where that's the target contributor.
It felt like so much responsibility, and though it's important to always be tactful and to provide both suggestions for improvement and indications of strengths, I felt an insane amount of pressure that I took on personally for the author's feelings.
It was a strange dynamic whereby I ended up feeling like I had to take utter responsibility for receptivity, which made me end up doubting my own abilities to make an article as strong as possible because I felt like the author despite being the editor.
This felt restrictive because if I were the author I would have made many different choices a lot of the time. At times, it felt like I made the space too safe, and if I had the opportunity to do this again, I would be more cognizant of boundaries between the two and not having such a personal vested interest because it got in the way.
My placement was beneficial to me in that it informed me of potential career options, and informed me of what exactly it is that I am looking for. This placement is infinitely closer to what I am looking for than anything else I've ever done. It also showed me where in my life I still need to improve.
I need to work on being more assertive, and be a better communicator when it comes to expectations.
The research, though perhaps a little late to be of more use to me to be preventative, will help me to complete my hours with CreatedHere and to ensure that the work I do is done to the best of my ability and will positively impact CreatedHere.
[WORKS CITED]
Dent, Stu, and Institute for Career Research. : Writing, Reporting, Editing: Newspapers, Magazines, Websites: Local Students Follow Their Joy of Writing, Decide to Become Journalists, Discover They Can Get Paid for Doing Their Homework Institute for Career Research, 2005. -
Evans, Michael Robert. The Layers of Magazine Editing. Columbia University Press, 2004.
Gutkind, Lee. "Creative Nonfiction in the Crosshairs: Lee Gutkind Responds to the Never-Ending Debate." Creative Nonfiction, no. 22, 2004, pp. 3–15. JSTOR.
Mann, Michele H. "How to Edit the Passive Writer's Work." Technical Communication, vol. 32, no. 3, 1985, pp. 14–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43094521.
Parsons, Les. Revising & Editing: Using Models and Checklists to Promote Successful Writing Experiences. Pembroke Pub, 2001.
Plotnik, Arthur. The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists. Macmillan, 1982.
Puri, Manohar. Art of Editing. Pragun Publications, 2006.