Editor for Life: Elizabeth Rains, Editor, Author, and Publishing Consultant

A career as an editor is often a solo adventure, especially if you’re a freelancer. So, we thought one way to better connect with fellow editors was to ask them the Five Ws: who, what, where, when, and why. Read on for some thought-provoking, enlightening tidbits from those of us who choose to work with words to earn our keep.

Please tell us a little about yourself, the kind of work you do (and where you live), and how long you’ve been an editor.

My home is on the Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, at the top of a cliff overlooking Howe Sound. I live with my husband, who works in marketing. I have two successful daughters and two talented grandkids.

On breaks from my work, I look out the window and watch waves rolling in. On lucky days I see a pod of orcas. Other days I see tugboats hauling barges of logs on their way to log-sorting companies in Twin Creeks or the mill in Port Mellon. Sometimes I see sailboats dancing in the wind. In the summer I often go kayaking and paddleboarding. I hike a lot and ride an e-bike. In the winter I travel as much as I can. As I write this, I’m getting ready for a trip to Vietnam.

As for my current work, I don’t do any. I play. 

Before I began as an editor, I took an anthropology course. It looked at Indigenous peoples throughout the world. One group in South America used a language that had no word for work. When they built canoes, dug ditches, or foraged in the woods, they called it play, my instructor said, because they had fun doing whatever they did. My goal became to get a job like that. I found it as an editor. I have fun playing with words. When it rains and the ocean gets rough, I like to edit non-stop all day.

My specialty is stylistic editing, which I find to be most like play. It’s like making pottery, which was my hobby for years. You take a piece of clay. You smush it together here, take off a lump of it there, and smooth it all together. If it isn’t right, you smush or smooth it again. In stylistic editing you can do that with words. There’s no one way to finish a piece. 

My career began as a reporter for the Vancouver Sun. I went on to several jobs in magazine editing. I’ve edited many books and magazines, written two non-fiction books, and have just finished my first novel. It’s a sci-fi epic and will go to my agent in January. In addition to a two-hour writing stint I do each day, I teach an editing course for Simon Fraser University, and I take on a lot of freelance editing work. I occasionally work as a ghost writer for non-fiction topics. 

My editing career dates back to 1990 when Canada Wide Media (Canada Wide Magazines then) hired me as a copy editor. Soon I was promoted to editor of B.C. Grocer Magazine. My experience there led to work as an advertising copywriter for a grocery store chain. In order to write ads for food products you have to eat them first. The company sent me boxes of cookies, pasta sauce, spring rolls, and assorted yummy treats. The downside? When I left, I had to go on a diet.

After that I worked as managing editor of The Capilano Review and went on to teach editing and publishing at Langara College. That was in the classroom. The editing course I’ve taught for more than a decade at SFU is online. It lets me glance away from the screen now and then and look at the ocean.

If you could edit one famous author, living or dead, who would it be?

If I could edit anyone it would be E. Annie Proulx, who wrote The Shipping News. It won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1994. I would like to edit Proulx’s work because she is the leanest writer I have encountered outside of Ernest Hemingway. I am a stickler for rooting out tautology, and I noticed none in her work. If I were to edit it, there would be a great challenge in finding one single useless word.

Editing is about challenge and puzzle solving. I love puzzles.

What is the one thing that has helped you the most in your career as an editor?

I worked as a reporter for two daily newspapers where I had to churn out thousands of words in little time. If the deadline hit before you finished, the story wouldn’t run, and you’d be in trouble with the editor. That taught me to never miss a deadline. My editing clients appreciate it, and so does my family. Dinner time is the deadline at my house.

If you could work anywhere in the world, where would that be?

I would work in Tobago. I visited there years ago while writing a story about Methanex, a Canadian methanol company that was setting up a plant in Trinidad. Trinidad and Tobago (locals call it T&T) is one country with two incredibly different environments. Trinidad is thick with crazy traffic, oil rigs, and smokestacks. Tobago is full of lush jungle, white sand beaches, and colourful motmot birds. I dream of finding satisfying work in Trinidad while making my home in Tobago, where I could paddle my paddleboard and become a birdwatcher.

Was there a time in your life when you seriously questioned your career choice?

Yes, but not as an editor. Before I was an editor I worked as a graphic designer. I was good at layout, but I learned that the people who advanced the most in graphic design were strong illustrators. I was not. Eventually I opened a company in downtown Vancouver that specialized in design, typesetting, and magazine publishing. When the editor of one of the magazines suddenly left, I briefly took on his job. (When you own the company, you’re allowed to do that without any training.) I was hooked. I sold the company and went to journalism school.

Why did you choose to become an editor? Or should we ask: Why did editing choose you?

I believe I’ve explained that, but I will add one thing: There’s always some luck involved in whatever happens to us. I’m grateful to be lucky.

And, of course, we just had to ask the inevitable how: How would you sum up your motto?

Precious time is slipping away (Van Morrison), so carpe diem.

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Keith Goddard is the editor-in-chief of BoldFace and a freelancer specializing in editing music dissertations and grant applications.

This article was copy edited by Erin Della Mattia.