Piecing together the perfect project

Putting together jigsaw puzzles is one of my favorite things to do. I enjoy the whole process: sorting for the edges and assembling them, laying out the remaining pieces, strategizing about which middle section to tackle first, organizing the pieces based on that strategy, and then completing the puzzle. Sometimes I sort by color, sometimes texture, sometimes by shape—whatever way helps me to identify the parts that will go together. Completing the puzzle is satisfying, but so is finding where each piece fits.

Writing is like putting together a puzzle, but instead of piecing together textures and colors to form pictures, you piece together words and punctuation to build sentences and paragraphs to communicate ideas.

Puzzles come in different levels of complexity or with different numbers of pieces, and writing projects do too. As an editor, I help writers at different at different stages of the assembly process. Some projects I work on are like nearly completed puzzles with richly detailed pictures. Others are partially completed, but the patterns on the remaining pieces are difficult to distinguish or the pieces don’t interlock easily. And still others are like working with a bag of pieces and a rough description of the picture.

I look at it like this: my clients create puzzles and bring them to me when they get stuck assembling them or need a final review. Along the process, I help with organizing the pieces and identifying any that might be missing. At the end of the process, I make sure that all of the pieces are in the right place, that they fit together smoothly, and that none are missing. I make sure that the completed projects communicate what the writers intend in the way they intend. Essentially, I make sure that audiences will be able to see the picture and, rather than be distracted by the individual pieces of the puzzle, appreciate how the pieces fit together.