Digging into editing for Game Wrap

[breakinglight11]

With a chunk of the article submissions in for Game Wrap Magazine, that means we've got to get down to editing them. I've gone through three of them that I was assigned to edit through with a handful more to go. I wanted to have some finished before we had our editorial meeting this evening.

Mostly I've been pleased. Of the three articles I've edited so far, I thought each one was thoughtful, had useful perspective, and clearly attacked their topic. There's going to be some quality material in this magazine. I have concerns about other things, though. There's at least one article that I started reading but not edited yet that I can't make head or tail of. It's so vaguely and pretentiously written about some obscure form of theater theory that I just can't follow it. I am even passingly familiar with theater theory! What do we do with an article like that? How do we fix it, when we don't even know what questions to ask for clarification? I'm hoping to discuss that at tonight's meeting, what everyone thinks is the best way to handle it.

Also, I'm a little distressed at how many people haven't handed in their articles yet, or even dropped out entirely. We want this to be a substantial journal, and our number of pieces is going to be disappointly low unless some of these late writers get their stuff in. I'm hoping to see a few more in the slate from the people who asked for extensions, so that our volume doesn't end up excessively slim.

Comments

[youareverysmall.livejournal.com]

Regarding what to do with the piece that you're not familiar with, maybe you could borrow from what academic journals do and find an editor who is familiar with the subject matter? If you don't know anyone who is, you could perhaps ask the writer for a reference to ask...

[breakinglight11.livejournal.com]

I guess that's a possibility, but I am not getting the vibe that I'm just not sufficiently versed in the subject matter. I think it's just not appropriately written-- too vague, too wordy, too ill-defined. And if even the editorial staff has no frame of reference for what they're talking about, how is the average reader going to experience it?

[youareverysmall.livejournal.com]

ooooooh, gotcha. i thought someone who's an expert on the subject might know what questions you could ask for clarification. but it sounds like you might have to tell the writer to start over entirely... :(

[laurion]

Better a thin journal of quality than a thick one of dreck. Perhaps this is just the challenge of a new channel, and hopefully the product will inspire more submissions in the future.

[(Anonymous)]

If there's some topic or topics that might fit into the journal to help amplify a theme or two, Game Wrap might consider asking specific people who could write those articles in a shorter amount of time. I only say this because it seems to be a common approach - one that has me frantically writing an article for a journal at work.

[vortexofchaos.livejournal.com]

In case the last comment, about a journal at work, fails to have any identity associated with it because LJ did something weird, that would be me.