Guest Blog – Let’s talk about editing

 Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Your writing is perfect. The world needs to hear your voice. You have a unique style that is new and fresh. You’ve written a book—why should you let anyone diminish your tone?

Let’s talk about editing.

To talk about editing, you first need to realise that you’re not special. I’ll repeat that: you’re not special. People have been writing for thousands of years. You’re not new. The world will continue if you write or don’t write.

That is not meant as a downer. Writing something that someone wants to read is a noble pursuit. There is nothing more rewarding as a writer than when someone tells you they enjoyed your book. However, this is about editing, so buckle up.

For a start, editors don’t write the book, you do. The essence of every book contains every author’s own style. Whether you are writing a novel, a children’s book or a family biography, they all contain the author’s particular style. However, they all need editing.

There are several types of editors. A lot of them have different names which all mean the same thing. The first person you need is the structural editor. This is the person who will read your manuscript and tell you if you are making sense. The next, a copy editor who highlights all your mid-picture inconsistencies and wrongdoings. The last one is the proofreader who makes sure the full stops and commas are in the right place.

The common misgiving is that a new writer thinks they don’t need to be edited because they have got everything right. That first draft is perfection, right? Wrong.

The other misgiving is that an editor will change their voice somehow. Also wrong. This is not what an editor does.

Consider this: does Stephen King have a particular style? Does John Grisham have a particular style? Does Jane Harper have a particular style? Obviously, the answer is yes. And yet all of these great writers have editors. Go figure.

The reason is, when we write a first draft we’re putting words on the page (hopefully in a coherent way). The prose is often flabby and sometimes rambling. This is fine and perfectly normal. However, it needs to be edited.

So, as a writer you need to swallow your ego and get over yourself. Realise that you are not God’s gift to writing and find an editor that can and should be brutal on your work. A machete needs to be taken to every first draft. Sentences need to be tight and easily readable.

If you think your work does not require editing, then you are badly mistaken. Editing does not change your style or reduce your voice. On the contrary, it will actually enhance it. Find the right editor who ‘gets’ your work and let them work their magic.

As an example, I was given a self-help book by my sister-in-law that was written by a friend of hers. I read the first ten pages and said that the book had not been edited. My sister-in-law laughed and said that of course it hadn’t been because her voice was “not to be altered” apparently. The thing is, by reading those ten pages I could tell that it had not been edited because it read that way. There was no cadence to the sentences. There was no flow to how it read. It was hard work. I gave up after the ten pages because it was simply too hard. Every sentence jarred because it hadn’t been edited. It wasn’t tight. It wasn’t easy to read.

This is not meant to be a criticism. Anyone who takes the time and has the skill to write anything should be applauded and even nurtured. However, if you think you don’t need your work edited then you are living in a fool’s paradise. Keep writing.

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