Dan Curtis ~ Professional Personal Historian

Many of my potential clients aren’t familiar with how a book or video life story is actually produced. They’re  often quite surprised at the number of hours it takes to do a professional editing job. Over the years I’ve tried to explain the editing process using analogies that might create an “Ah Ha” moment for my clients.

If you’re reading this as someone who’s  interested in having yours or someone else’s life story told, perhaps my analogies will help you understand the process. If you’re  a personal historian, these examples might be something you can add to your kit bag of tools.

• The cabinet maker analogy: Editing is like making a fine piece of furniture. Let’s say you want an end table built. The cabinet maker you hire starts with the raw material, usually  hardwood. She carefully measures and cuts the pieces according to a blueprint. The pieces are then assembled but at this point the table  is still rough and requires sanding. The final stage involves using finer and finer grades of sandpaper until the table is ready for varnishing. Layers of varnish are laid down and rubbed smooth between each application. The result is an exquisite heirloom quality end table you’d be proud to display in your home. So too the print or video editor starts with the raw material of the interviews. After cutting them down and structuring the story she polishes the manuscript or video by refining the initial edit and then working on an attractive overall design.

• The gold panning analogy: I got this analogy  from reading an interview with Studs Terkel, the famous American oral historian. He said that editing was like a miner panning for gold. The miner had to carefully sift through earth and gravel before he came up with some flecks of gold in the bottom of his pan. Like the miner, Terkel said he had to go through  the transcripts patiently extracting the gems that were locked away in the interviews. It was a long and painstaking process.

• The symphony orchestra analogy: Editing is similar to composing a symphony. There are many different instruments all with their unique qualities and sounds. It’s not enough simply to write down a bunch of notes and hope that somehow a beautiful sound will be produced. You have to structure each section of the symphony so that when it is played it not only has a beginning, middle, and end but that it is harmonious and polished. Like a symphony, the editor pares away at the raw interview material and shapes it so that it to has structure and no extraneous notes and is beautiful to read.

If you’re a personal historian and have some editing  analogies you find particularly helpful, please share them in the comment box below.

Photo by Jon Kneller

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