Why work with an editor?

Novelists, short story enthusiasts, poets, memoirists, essayists ... writers work under a big tent where everyone has their own approach. Regardless of whether you write with a slow burn over several months or pound out your manuscript at a fever pitch in a few weeks, the maxim holds true: Every good writer needs a good editor. In fact, every single piece of well-done work you’ve read in a publication has passed through the hands of skilled editors.

As a writer, your job is to create your best material. An editor’s job is to scrutinize, knead, and massage your work so it shines on the page or screen.

Different types of editing for different stages

If you’re in the early stages of your work, developmental editors, a few steps removed from your passion project, bring a bird’s eye view. They can weigh in on the big picture and judge how well your story hangs together. Does it have a solid arc? A good beginning, a middle that moves at a reasonable clip, and a compelling or satisfying end? Do the characters come alive on the page? Consider using a developmental editor once you’ve completed a few drafts and feel that your work is ready to be shown to someone (besides your mother and best friend!).

Copyeditors take up the job when you feel that you’ve tackled most of what your developmental editor has covered. They focus on clarity and style. They catch inconsistencies in characters. They ensure you’ve used the clearest or most appropriate sentence structure. They make sure the reader won’t get tripped up as they get engrossed in your story.

When I copyedit, I keep an eye out for repetition. Does the author repeat the same phrase? There are so many words in the English language, there’s no need to recycle, unless repetition is being used for effect. A recent client re-used the phrase “part and parcel” in an essay. Sure, it’s a creative way of getting across the point that the task was an important part of the whole, but seeing it used twice reminded me that she had confessed she was rushing to meet a deadline when sending it to me. It was easy to update it to “a critical part of” and keep her original intent.

I also keep a paring knife at the ready for run-ons and extraneous words when I copyedit. It’s important to make every word matter and not pad the word count with unnecessary phrases that slow the narrative movement.

The best copyeditors recognize that each writer has their own voice and approach. It is not the copyeditor’s job to rewrite prose in her own style. I like to read the entire manuscript without putting fingers to keyboard to pick up an understanding of story, character development and tone. From that foundation, I use my reality-checking process. For example, if in a story a character is a do-it-yourself type, uncaring of what others think, then a few pages or chapters later becomes dependent upon others, constantly seeking validation, I would want to see a reason for the shift.

Copyediting is easier for someone a step removed from the process of developing the creative foundation and story arc. An editor is objective. Writers can always decide whether to take any advice from an editor, but even just considering the questions we raise helps the writer fine tune their story to make it more solid.

Proofreaders enter the game last, scrutinizing every word and every sentence. They identify any place your work goes astray, down to the last comma and accidental extra space. Proofreaders catch remaining errors, ferret out typos, and fix any inconsistencies. The critical (okay, nitpicky) eye of the proofreader provides an essential tool to ensure you haven’t missed anything during your umpteenth rewrite. Hang in there, this is the last step before submitting!

Also in this mix of editors, we find writing coaches. Writing coaches can work with you at any stage but typically come in at the beginning of the process, often before you are ready for a developmental edit. They help you sort through problems such as building out characters or exploring structural changes. They provide feedback about whether to take a dramatic turn or keep building the momentum. If you are a plotter, they might help you construct an outline. As you work together, depending on how far along you are, they might also provide some developmental editing, or sometimes, even copyediting. Overall, though, writing coaches are there to help you build out your story, providing direction and support throughout,

Different types of editing services appeal to writers depending on the project, their experience with writing and publishing, and where they are in their process. At KindWrite Studio, we provide assistance and editing services from gestation all the way to publication. including coaching and helping you submit your work.

The four stages of writing

English Professor Betty Sue Flowers, who taught at the University of Texas at Austin for several years, created a construct for the stages of writing and editing in “Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge: Roles and the Writing Process.” (Dr. Flowers went on to become director of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum, among other positions, and is now an Emeritus Professor of English at UT Austin.)

Crystallizing the writing process into parts, with clever personification to drive it home, helped Flowers “unstick” her students complaining of writer’s block. Decades later, her lessons still apply. Madman. Architect. Carpenter. Judge. Many of us wear these hats throughout the writing process, but when they start overlapping as we write, they gum up the work.

The madman, as Flowers describes, “… is full of ideas, writes crazily and perhaps rather sloppily, gets carried away by enthusiasm or anger, and if really let loose, could turn out ten pages an hour.”

I get that one. The madwoman inside me takes hold of the keyboard like a sprinter out of the blocks. At that point, I tell myself, just keep going. Get those words on the page. The fountain is flowing. Don’t worry about splashes, you can mop it up later.

Next comes the architect. She “will read the wild scribblings saved from the night before and pick out maybe a tenth of the jottings as relevant or interesting. …the architect is not sentimental about what the madman wrote; she’s not going to save every crumb for posterity. Her job is to select large chunks of material and to arrange them in a pattern that might form an argument. The thinking here is large, organizational, paragraph-level thinking – the architect doesn’t worry about sentence structure.”

I love the architect stage. I push my messy first draft aside overnight or for a few days or weeks even, then bring in my architect self. Trimming lengthy passages, porting sections from here to there – there’s nothing more gratifying than seeing my madwoman thoughts organized into a cohesive structure.

The carpenter has a nifty job, too. She nails these ideas together in a logical sequence, making sure each sentence "is clearly written, contributes to the argument of the paragraph and leads logically and gracefully to the next sentence.”

At this point, the manuscript just needs shaping to ensure the pieces fit together. Proofreading can be the bane of every writer, whose familiarity with their own prose enables tiny mental mistakes. All rise for the judge, who “… comes around to inspect. Punctuation, spelling, grammar, tone – all the details which result in a polished essay become important only at this last stage.”

The judge in me would change the “which” to “that” in the above sentence – it’s an essential clause – and that kind of laboring over every word is the judge’s job. Let no misplaced restrictive clause go unturned.

Once they understand these roles in the writing process, many writers can benefit from working in stages. Indeed, Dr. Flowers’ students did, as have many of the writers with whom we have worked. Following these roles keeps creativity moving, unfettered.

When should you hire an editor?

So when exactly should you consider engaging an editor? If you want a writing coach or a developmental editor, that comes in the beginning, when you are deep in the creative process.

Of course, it depends on your confidence level and experience, but many writers appreciate a sounding board and feedback from someone they trust, especially when it comes to writing a book. A coach or developmental editor will help you look at the big picture, including story arc, world building, point of view and consistent voice.

After you feel your work is ready to be shared, either via your own revisions, or after getting help from a developmental editor, it’s time to find a copyeditor. Good copyeditors know language and have a great ear. They understand how sentences work – grammar and punctuation, of course, but they also evaluate, dispassionately, how paragraphs and sections hang together. Is the prose clear? Do the characters act or speak in believable ways? Does Point B flow from Point A?

Finally, after the work has been copyedited and you feel there’s nothing more you can catch, you might want to bring in a proofreader before submission.

My partner and I still seek editing services even though we pride ourselves on having a good ear for language and eye for detail. That doesn’t mean we don’t need fresh eyes on our work all the time. (Case in point: This post went back and forth five times between us co-founders).

What if you need help submitting?

Editors will help get your manuscript submission-ready. Some editing services, like KindWrite, also provide assistance in submitting your work. Because as Dennis James Sweeney writes in, How to Submit: Getting Your Writing Published with Literary Magazines and Small Presses, “There are so many of us…who want to share our writing but are daunted by the sheer breadth of magazines, presses, and submission opportunities, not to mention the vulnerable work of asking someone to consider our writing for publication.”

Journal editors and publishers are busy people and have strict requirements about how submissions should be formatted and what should be included. Literary magazines have preferences in style, tone and length as well as strict submission guidelines regarding formatting, timing, cover letters, bios and whether you can send in a simultaneous submission.

When you hand off the submission process, you are ensuring that it will be done right, and equally important, leave yourself more time for the creative phase.

Final thoughts

Does it always take a village to finish a manuscript? No, but creative writing projects almost always benefit from the input of others.

Investing in editing can transform your hard work into a stronger product. Your words are worth it.