Tuesday, January 04, 2011

When editors don't get the joke

My work has been blue-penciled by many editors over the years. Some have improved my work, some have made changes but neither improved nor damaged my work, and an insignificant number have actually done damage.

Of all the things an editor can do, though, missing the joke or pun bothers me most.

Here's a sentence from one of my manuscripts:
"She had been one-third of our inseparable trio back then--The Three Mousseketeers because of the way we'd worn our hair--but she'd gone her own way since then and we hardly ever saw her."
Here's the published version:
"She had been one-third of our inseparable trio back then--The Three Mouseketeers because of the way we'd worn our hair--but she'd gone her own way since then and we hardly ever saw her."
What's most frustrating is that the pun should be self-explanatory, but I explained it anyhow --"because of the way we'd worn our hair"--and the editor still didn't get it.

Sigh.

Maybe I'm only funny in my own mind.

2 comments:

Kevin R. Tipple said...

Almost as bad as one of my stories where the female drove off into the sunset down the interstate and a number of editors that it was a suicide and refused to publish the story.

Does make one wonder.

Michael Bracken said...

I drove into a sunset once. Totaled my car. I was lucky to get out alive.