Editing 101

Editing 101
Wednesday, June 8, 2022 by Susan Lyttek

For me, this week is all about the edits. I have determined to thoroughly review what my amazing editor, Lisa, sent me and return it to her by Friday. Because that is the focus of my thoughts, I figured it should be the focus of my blog post too.

At this point, I’ve made pretty good headway. My discouragement from a couple of weeks ago has abated and I’m all about the business of refining what I wrote. I credit the people I asked to pray for me (who I’m sure must be) to make me receptive and willing to allow the changes.

But what, in my opinion, is editing? And what makes a good editee? (As opposed to editor.)

As a teacher and writing coach, I have acted as editor. Now, the goal of the editor is to make the writing better overall, make it fit an assignment or niche, and keep it standardized with other products by the publisher or school. It tows a fine line between promoting something as new and creative and making sure it fits into the scheme of things.

The goal of the editee? It should be to make the editor’s job easier.

When editing, I have realized multiple times that I am not perfect. Sometimes I have edited a section because I know intuitively it’s not right, but then my correction doesn’t do it either. Knowing that, I try to find what might have set off the warning bells in my editor’s brain even if I don’t agree with the way it was corrected. That intuition that something is not quite as it should be is one of the editor’s super skills!

When reviewing edits, try to agree. Try to say yes whenever possible. The editor put a lot of work in evaluating what you have written. Rather than get possessive, defensive and emotional about your words (all of which I have done on occasion to my shame and detriment) recognize their side of the craftsmanship of a piece of writing.

Think of the writer as a miner. He or she has to dig deep and pull out the words. It takes a lot of sweat and toil. Sometimes the vein of words is rich and the digging is easy. But other times, the walls have to be dynamited in order to reveal the next scene. But eventually, he or she has a rich handful of gems.

The editor is the jeweler. He or she is taking that handful of gems and putting them in settings that people will recognize and want to buy. The editor takes the words and polishes them up until they shine and glitter, then mounts them in gold or silver to show off the jewels’ facets.

Can an author edit his or her own work? Of course. To varying degrees of success. Some writers are better at distancing themselves from their creations than others. And sometimes it depends on the product. For instance, I can edit my nonfiction much better than my fiction. The why of that should be obvious. Fiction is where my heart is. Editing a story is like carving up my word baby. Those edits often feel like physical blows. Nonfiction is logical and deductive and follows a format. There, I can unleash my inner Spock. Who cares if I have to delete an entire paragraph? Got to meet that word count!

It is, perhaps, because the fiction has so much of me invested that it needs the editing all the more. It’s hard to see how many times you use “just” and “so” when I’m bleeding upon the page.

So (one of my overused words if you all haven’t seen that by now) this is my plea to be kind to your editor today. Be a grace-filled editee. Accept the comments in the spirit they were intended and realize, as a surgeon operates on a baby to save the child’s life, so an editor carves into word children to make them healthy and strong and able to thrive.

Thanks, Lisa!

Share This Blog: