what’s in an apostrophe i say? i mean does it really matter at the end of the day if it is its or it’s? It really is an indelible itch to fix these apostrophes, coz they simply seem like such a small big thing! they change the meaning from personable to impersonable, and it seems like the error is glaring at you when you read it – doesn’t everyone notice it?

at that stage you really wonder at what stage you stop being a writer (allowed to make such incongruous mistakes) and become an editor (shrivelling up with the anxiety of a missing ‘strophe). and does being a better editor make you an equally better writer? OR doesn’t being a better writer, make you a better editor?

Unfortunately, I believe none of the above have anything to do with the other. An editor is probably waiting for a story to tell – and after having read so much crap stuff and good stuff by others, is simply too jaded and self-critical to actually write… and a writer is simply so ponderously self-obssessed with a story or the finer nuances, that the judicious clarity to edit – to step away from the work, and actually see it as it is, is quite matter-of-factly, lost. I mean, of course that it s a huge generalisation but that is how it seems to fit just right. Writers write and editors edit. Writers suffer editor’s block and editors suffer writer’s block.

They say a book or film is as good as its editor. An editor works quietly (or not so quietly – I suppose they must be given to temperamental fits) behind the scenes to make the final product what it is – to make it or break it. I guess that’s why so many writers thank their editors in the acknowledgements, and so many directors simply forget to thank their editors in their trophy acceptance speeches! Since there are awards for ‘best editing’ in movies – why isn’t there an award for best book editor? Not that I want one of course, I’m waiting to write that book.