In a recent post, https://journaly.com/post/37870 , @JGComm posed a series of questions of me, and I’m posting this by way of a response.

By the way, for those of you who don't know, my real name is Uly [u:li], short for Ulises, and I'm a Cuban-American male, living in South Florida.

Nice to meet you all!

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On Being an Editor

What kind of editing do you do?

At this point in my career, I work mainly on prose... novels, autobiographies, biographies, fiction, non-fiction, etc. As you may or may not have noticed, I love stories — any kind of story, and I love helping authors develop and present their stories in the most intriguing, creative, engaging and memorable form possible. A lot of times, I get narratives that are interesting but flat and I help the author make the impactful parts more impactful and the narrative parts more suspenseful or otherwise gripping, so that the result is a roller coaster that will hopefully put the reader through every human emotion by the time it's done. That, to me, is the formula for a good story of any kind.

In what industries have you been an editor?

I've worked in the medical, legal, literary and linguistic fields. Out of all of those, the only ones I'm passionate about are literary and linguistic, but I had to kiss a lot of frogs before I found my princess! I started out with a major international publishing house based out of Holland called Wolters Kluwer, and most of what they put out was medical/business manuals and reports. It was absolute drudgery for the most part because I wasn't passionate about the subject matter, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, right? Funny enough, I was contacted by WK last week and I'm working on a big project for them as we speak! And it's really interesting this time.

Have you worked freelance?

Only as a translator/interpreter — never as an editor.

What kinds of clients did you have?

Publishing houses.

Have you ever studied either of your native languages to gain a deeper understanding of them?

I'm constantly still learning my native English and Spanish. Every time I read or hear something interesting or new to me, I write it down and research it on my own. You never really learn any language — even your own. Languages are always changing and growing, so you have to keep up. I majored in English in school, of course, all editors do. I also formally studied American English Phonology and have worked as a vocal coach for actors and media personalities, as well as people who want to get rid of their native accents or simply improve their American pronunciation.

What's it like to study your own language versus studying a foreign language?

To me, it's extremely eye-opening and sometimes downright fascinating. We all have an inner voice that lets us know when something in our native language sounds off or downright unnatural, but we rarely know why it sounds unnatural or why we say things a certain way but not another, and when you start looking into the nuts and bolts of language vis-à-vis thought (semantics), it's just fascinating that our minds process so much in split seconds that we're not even aware of — even before we open our mouths to speak. Studying your own language deeply not only helps you understand the nitty-gritty of these processes but also puts you in a position to explain them to others who are learning your language, and I love helping people learn English.

Tips for giving feedback diplomatically?

As an editor, you shouldn't fear offending anyone as long as you're accurate and sure in your correction. On Journaly, for instance, diplomacy shouldn't be a concern because anyone who posts something on here is basically asking for correction; you're just giving them what they want. The way I see it, every good correction (and I say good because I've seen some doozies) is a language lesson in and of itself and should be accompanied by an explanation whenever possible.

And "diplomacy" works both ways: I've spent considerable time editing a post only to have the author totally ignore me, or come back with something like Oh, I heard Rachel on Friends say this... it's correct! when it's obvious that they totally took it out of context or Rachel was being silly and talking nonsense and they don't know any better. I also find that some misguided users feel they shouldn't implement corrections and edit their texts (which is an indispensable feature of this site that's underused, in my opinion) because they might offend someone if they were offered more than one correction. That namby-pamby attitude won't get you anywhere! Pick an edit and implement it, so that the next time you read your post, you'll have a clean, correct version and you can still reference your original words by clicking on the blue. I think that reading corrected posts aloud in your target language is an invaluable exercise in language learning, which is why I'm willing to record any post that has been fully edited. Just ask!

Since both English and Spanish have such wide regional variations, do you edit according to a particular dialect?

I don't edit Spanish — only English. But people who edit Spanish (as well as translators) do something called localization, where they alter the text to suit a certain region or dialect of the target language.

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JG, thank you for taking an interest in me and my career. I hope I've adequately answered all your questions. And I hope this becomes a trend on here, so that we can get to know our fellow users "beyond the screen name" and bring our community a little closer together. I understand you're due for a wee hiatus here soon and I wish you all the best and look forward to your return.

Fondly,

Uly