Why Human Editors Still Matter (in Spite of AI)
These days you can’t peruse your inbox, go to social media, or read a newspaper or magazine without tripping all over news and information about AI. And that’s great! I’m glad people are paying attention to it.
But I don’t think AI will put competent human writers and editors out of business any time soon.
Now, I admit, I’ve got a bit of a perfectionist streak.
I would be completely mortified if a reader noticed, for example, that one of my major characters had brown eyes in one scene and blue eyes in another. It’s the kind of slip that’s easy to make, and hard to catch.
It’s not so important if the character has a small role, but if they’re the main character or a member of the supporting cast, it becomes a lot more important.
That’s why I was surprised recently to find a much bigger and less forgivable error in a book I was otherwise enjoying. Central to the plot is a first edition of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.
So color me surprised when, three quarters of the way through, the book in question suddenly, and with no warning, became Oliver Twist!
I can imagine what happened: the author started with Oliver Twist, and decided at some point to change it to A Tale of Two Cities. So they employed their word processor’s find and replace function to go through the entire manuscript, finding every instance of Oliver Twist and replacing it with A Tale of Two Cities.
Except, for some reason, they missed this one. And nobody caught it. An automated spellcheck or grammar check certainly wouldn’t catch it. It required a thinking, human brain.
I just wish it hadn’t been my brain.
In another book by the same author, the main character carefully dons a pair of gloves and even discusses how she needs them to avoid leaving fingerprints at the house she’s about to break into looking for a diary that may be evidence.
Later, after finding the diary in question, she tells her partner-in-housebreaking, “If they check the book for fingerprints, they’ll find mine all over it.” And, less important but still annoying, chopsticks suddenly become a fork in the middle of a meal.
This is why authors still need human editors.
What I’m Reading
The Write to Remain Silent by Jasmine Webb
This is the sixth in the Poppy Perkins series, which I’ve enjoyed.
Poppy is an aspiring author. Her first book has just been published, and her friend Jenny helps her make some TikToks to help get the word out. But then she accidentally uploads one which she meant only for herself, one that talks about how much she doesn’t know what she’s doing, and it goes viral and her book starts selling.
That’s great, except Poppy doesn’t know how to deal with being in the public eye.
She especially doesn’t know how to deal with the publicity while chasing criminals with her day-job boss, a high-level private investigator. How do you keep a low profile in one part of your life while increasing your profile in another?
Altogether entertaining, with a background of San Francisco.
A Hardcover Homicide by Audrey Shine
This is the first in the Juliet Page Bound for Murder series. It’s a quick, easy read, a murder mystery with a touch of romcom.
Juliet’s life is falling apart, so she does what every red-blooded American woman does in that situation — she books a trip to a small village in the UK for a couple of weeks. Of course, this isn’t really like her. Normally she’s a shy librarian who doesn’t make impulsive decisions, wear bright colors, or otherwise draw attention to herself. But after walking in and finding her husband in flagrante with his assistant, well, it’s time to do something for herself!
Because she loves books, especially rare ones, Juliet visits an auction where several rare volumes are up for sale. Murder ensues, and Juliet figures out whodunnit, and also decides to stay and open a used and rare bookshop in town.
And of course it’s much too soon for a new relationship, but she has to admit her heart speeds up a little when Oliver’s around…
Notable Quotes
This week’s quotes are all about describing characters without actually giving any specifics about their height, weight, hair color, state of the bags under their eyes, etc. It’s what I was talking about in last week’s newsletter, the ability to use a few words to get to the essence and not the externals.
The tryst was at an Italian restaurant in Worthing, where clearly Barry was known. ‘Signor Stillwell,’ fawned the owner, a helpful visual aid to language students who didn’t understand the meaning of the word ‘oleaginous’.
- Death on the Downs by Simon Brett
Oleaginous is one of those words that, to me at least, sounds just like what it means. Oily, slippery, with overtones of not to be trusted.
How was it possible that she looked so stunningly perfect after pulling an all-nighter, whereas I’d actually gotten a few hours of shut-eye and still managed to look like a ham-and-cheese croissant that had been left in a toaster overnight?
- Read You Like a Crook by Jasmine Web
Again, we see no details about her messy hair, wrinkled clothes, or anything like that, but that croissant certainly paints a vivid picture of droopy, drippy, stale messiness, which is apparently how she felt.
She had put on her lounging robe, of a dramatic oriental pattern of green and gold, an outfit not to be sprung suddenly on invalids or those of nervous tendencies...
- Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood
This excerpt uses the descriptive power of the effect the lounging robe has on others, rather than the wearer. But in doing so, Greenwood gives us a lot of information about the woman wearing it.
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Wise Words
Last week I asked you to choose the more appropriate word to fill in the blank in this quote:
Tuesday brought her a slightly more interesting match with a class-climbing coal _____ who played chess to “move in new circles.”
- The Case of the Christie Conspiracy by Kelly Oliver
Your choices were magnate and magnet, and the correct answer is magnate. A magnet is something that attracts, where a magnate is a powerful or influential person in a specific sphere. And as usual, my readers demonstrated their verbal acumen by choosing wisely.
Come back next week for a new challenge.