Take a Giant Leap to Better Writing

How editors are making my book better while I sleep

Every writer wants to be published and curated. We all want to receive recognition for our writing. To get there, you need to have a crucial element included in your writing process. This step is so important that using it could be the tipping point between the success and failure of any story you compose.

The key to better writing is using an editor. Editors help you to understand how the reader will perceive your material. They help to catch grammar, phrasing, and style errors that could lead to readers abandoning your story before getting to the end. The problem with having someone else read your piece before it goes public is they are going to criticise it. As a result, we writers need to develop a tough skin so that it is easier to receive feedback. That feedback, after all, is designed to help improve your writing, and to make your ideas more lucent to your audience.

Who do you write for?

If you were just writing for yourself, you could use a journal and not share your musings with anyone else. Once you decide to write in public, however, it is a different ballgame. When you release your writing, be it a blog on your own website, an article on Medium, or as a book, it belongs to your audience. You send it out to inspire, develop or entertain and with any luck, it will. Why not help your writing to have a deeper, longer-lasting impression by submitting your writing to the editorial process before it is published? Having a new set of eyes on your writing will provide that.

Be a transistor for the information you are sharing, not a resistor to the understanding of your ideas.

Do you know someone in your audience?

Finding an editor should not be hard. Is there someone you know who matches the profile of your audience? This type of editor will help ensure that your writing resonates with your target audience. Allowing you to inspire those you are writing for. An editor who matches your target audience will also aid your road to improvement by pointing out errors in logic, tone and phrasing that could create distance between you and the reader. Repairing your writing to accommodate this editor’s suggestions will make you a more proficient and refined writer too.

How can you benefit from grammar authoritarians and second language speakers?

If you know someone who reads a lot, is quick to point out grammar errors or has become proficient in English as a second or tertiary language, these people make great editors. Their understanding of grammar and the impact of the written word is deep.

People who read a lot have seen good and bad writing. That knowledge will help them to point out holes in cohesion and syntax and word choice that you may have missed. Since you write from your own experience, you may take for granted the depth of knowledge a reader brings to your writing. Reader types will be quick to point out the content gaps.

“We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.” ~ George Wald

Grammarians are sticklers for proper usage. If you are like me, writing from your consciousness, experiences, and imagination, grammarians will help you to refine your phrasing, catch trouble words, and point out errors that make your intended message unclear or incomprehensible. Grammarians are hard to take feedback from because there is always the chance that they will find many areas of your writing that need refinement or a complete overhaul. This could require you to rewrite large portions of your manuscript. It is worth it. The grammarian will make you a transistor for the knowledge you are sharing rather than a resistor to the method of assimilation.

Finally, people who have learned English as a second language often know syntax rules and are more keenly aware of vocabulary choices than native speakers. Their deeper understanding of English often relies on systematic application of rules, precise vocabulary selection, and following common logic patterns. If those things are out of balance, it could lead to confusion for the reader. Getting advice from non-native speakers ensures your writing is easy to read and your message is understood by a wider audience.

Can you recognize your writing style?

Discussions with your editor(s) will help you to understand your style of writing. You will develop this recognition through having to justify your choices in structure, word choice, and the ways you present information. As your style is revealed to you, it will be easier for you to write in a way that is uniquely personal to you and leaves a lasting impression on your readers.

Is AI editing helpful?

Before you ask your friends or writing circle to have a look at your prose, check it with an AI proofing tool. Grammarly and ProWritingAid both check your writing more effectively than the level of correction you will get in your word processor’s spell/grammar checker. These tools will also give you hints about why corrections are suggested. This helps in making informed decisions about what adjustments to make.

Other tools like Hemingway Editor will help you to improve your readability. And a plagiarism checker will give you peace of mind that your writing is original and not copied from all the research you read while producing your work. Making the suggested corrections is not always easy, but it will make you a better writer.

“Editing feels almost like sculpting or a form of continuing the writing process.” ~ Sydney Pollack

How can I know my writing is ready for a larger audience?

Utilizing checklists can help you to understand the requirements that publications you intend to write for have. These rules ensure that their readers get high quality content and the writers are not exposing the publication to legal claims. Illumination’s Essential Checklist For Writers and Medium’s Distribution Standards are good references to keep close by if you are writing on Medium. Each publication has its own rules and guidelines. Ensuring that you abide by these will keep you in good graces with the editors that approve your content for distribution.

Love your editors, they help you to look better

An editor, whether part of your group or the gatekeeper to publication all have one goal in mind: Help you to succeed. Their comments, recommendations and rejections are meant to challenge you to get better at the craft of writing. It may be difficult to accept their feedback after pouring so much time into your writing. However, not doing so is selling yourself short of the opportunity to achieve your goal. You do have another option, you could withdraw your writing from the editorial process and give up on the challenge of becoming a better writer. As for me, I would much rather be vulnerable to people that want me to succeed than those who are looking for an opportunity to find fault in my labor of love.

My own experience

Whenever possible, I have at least two people read my writing before submitting for publication. Then another editor checks it before choosing whether or not to publish it. This ensures that the quality of my writing is good. Between the first and second drafts of my upcoming book, Win the Day — How to win your daily battles with stress, anxiety and depression, I am having four people on two different continents read and edit this book. I chose to do this because I want to ensure that the book makes a great impression on the readers who will eventually spend their hard earned money to buy it. If all goes well, those future readers will share my book with their friends, relatives and colleagues. To achieve that, I owe it to my future audience to give them the best experience possible. This would not be conceivable without the help of the friends who generously offered to edit for me. They are literally improving my book while I sleep.

“A professional writer is an amateur who didn’t quit.” ~ Richard Bach

So find people who want to see you succeed and trust them with your writing. Listen to their input and then make changes that improve your message. If you disagree, have some solid justification for not taking their advice. This is just my style is not a good enough reason to dismiss your editor’s feedback. Finally, be kind to your editors, they have taken the time to help you reach a larger audience and succeed as a writer. They were not obligated to do that.

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