Good editing is like the best cup of coffee. It sees us where we are as authors and then helps us find a whole new level of expression. It empowers us and our intended audience. I am an editor and I love being edited.
You'll have to forgive me if this post reads like I'm an overexcited teenager enthusing about their favourite band. But today I'm going through some edits a fellow editor has provided on one of my courses. And the experience is making me grin from ear to ear, because I love being edited.
I've been a full-time professional copyeditor for more than 15 years. I've worked with over 100 clients on almost 60 million words. My projects have spanned highly personal reflections to seriously technical deep-dives. You'd think that, because I've seen it all (well, a lot of it!), I wouldn't need an editor for my own writing.
But that would be rubbish.
Any editor who claims they wouldn't benefit from editorial support in their own writing is lying. Sure, for financial reasons, we editors don't always use a fellow professional (for example, thus far I have got away without editorial support for this blog). But ask any serious editor and I bet they'll say they'd always use an editor for their own writing if the situation allowed.
Editing is life
Good editing is a vital, living thing. It embraces the author with empathy, intelligence and discernment, and then builds ladders, scaffolding, a flying carpet, a jetpack – whatever the author needs – to encourage them and their writing onwards and upwards.
I'm seeing this in action today as I work through those edits I mentioned (provided by the marvellous Mary Davis).
I can't stop smiling at the perceptive and decisive nature of Mary's edits. It's a wonderful feeling to have somebody notice exactly the issues you feared were lurking in your text but couldn’t see, and then fix them (or suggest fixes) with empathy and good judgement.
And, more than that – to have somebody actively identify ways to make my text better.
Editing is more than correction
I've managed and commissioned numerous editors over my career, and the best ones do more than just correct errors. They are builders and enhancers.
I suggested above that editors will always use another editor for their own writing if they can. There are two reasons we'll do this.
Reason to love being edited 1: reactive
The first reason to seek editing is reactive. We know that, just like any other author, we become blind to the errors in our texts. We will almost certainly do a better job than most authors of correcting our own work, but we'll never do as good a job as another professional with a fresh pair of eyes.
So we need somebody else to spot the errors we've missed.
Reason to love being edited 2: proactive
The other reason to seek editing is proactive. And this is where that whole life-giving thing starts to apply.
A good editor takes what an author has created and finds ways to enhance it. When editing is done well, it's the gift of someone else's experience – their skill, imagination, intuition, passion and hard-earned learning.
It's pure synergy, and it's beautiful.
(Editor–author synergy is a topic I've written about more fully in my copyediting and AI manifesto – particularly in points 3 and 5.)
Good editing serves the writer and the reader
Seeing an editor work well is a glorious thing. It brings out the best in the writer and their work, which in turn gives the reader the best possible experience.
Being edited well is energizing, like the best cup of coffee you've ever had. This is why I love being edited, and I want you to love it too.
Get in touch if you'd like to explore how we might find some of this synergy together.
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