Editors Need Editing Too

Cover photo by Bruce Mars, People

While most people think of copyeditors as judgmental, uptight, red-pen-wielding tyrants seeking too mark up an author’s art until it no longer resembles itself, that’s not true! A good copyeditor’s goal is to make the author’s work shine, not to attempt to overshine it with subjective and unnecessary style-preference changes.

Many editors are also writers, and those are the ones who understand that even their work is not perfect—not even close. An editor/writer often gets stuck in vicious cycles of revision—refining something here, fixing a typo there—over and over so they never finish anything or get published and have to resort to blogging [ahem]. And when editor/writers hand their copy over to another copyeditor, you can be sure it never comes back clean.

Everyone gets blind to their own work. I, for instance, have an affinity for super-long, intricately punctuated sentences. I tend to ramble at times. I sometimes struggle with articulating my thoughts as concisely as I’d like to, and I often need someone to reign me in—gently—by telling me when I make no sense.

As the creator, your work is your baby, and you’re too close to it to be able to make objective criticisms the same way a copyeditor can. A huge portion of copyediting entails putting yourself in the shoes of the intended audience and serving as an objective second set of eyes.

If you’re writing about a complicated topic on which you are an expert, for example, a copyeditor unfamiliar with your area of expertise can let you know if you’re explaining complex topics in a way that flows logically and makes sense. They can also let you know if there are any areas that need clarity or further explanation.

Conversely, you might want to know if the plot of your fantasy fiction series becomes too convoluted or contains unintended inconsistencies, contradictions, or anything else that might make your story difficult to follow.

Also, let’s face it: writing something, especially a manuscript, takes a lot of hard, metaphorically backbreaking work, and we don’t always proofread when we’re done when we feel like we’ve already proofread over and over while writing and rewriting. But we will never “get” everything. Every editor and every author will always find something to change every time they revisit a piece of work. It’s just what we do.