The English Dude Who Helps Me Edit My Stories

If you don’t have one, it’s about time you got one.

What do you do when you’re done adding the final touches to a story? Do you ask others for feedback? Do you like to listen to it, whether in your own voice or in someone else’s? Or maybe you put it away for a while so that you can come back to it later with fresh eyes.

What these approaches have in common is that they offer perspective. An opportunity to view our story from a different angle. They can shine a light on how it actually comes across to the reader or reveal how its rhythm flows.

While at least some of them should form part of any writer’s repertoire, I frequently rely on one that isn’t usually preached by most writing guides: I engage the services of an editor. But not just any old editor. My editor is witty, charming, sophisticated, eloquent, and English. Very English. So English he makes the queen sound like she’s from the Bronx English.

What really sets him apart from other editors, though, is that he exists only inside my head.

In the devoted process of writing, our work becomes too familiar. You can only read your own words so many times before losing the ability to judge their quality.

Your story takes center stage

Whenever I’m in the final stages of editing an article, there he is, replacing the familiar little voice inside my head with an elegant tune that turns the act of writing into a nature documentary.

The words that make up my piece erupt into an orchestra, and he the conductor. With a gesture, my sentences are brought to life, every syllable a note. A melody that flows and dances between paragraphs. At times swelling with splendor, at times ebbing away. All the while my maestro is listening, analyzing, scrutinizing every fragment of sound before it all suddenly screeches to a halt.

“Something didn’t sound quite right there,” he tells me, in his silky smooth voice.

I look over my work again where he stopped. He has a point.

Home in on flaws in your writing

While all the good parts of my writing sound flatteringly better when I hear them read out in his voice, the real advantage is that the bad parts sound worse. Much worse.

Like waves crashing on a jutting rock, I’m able to see the discord in my narrative. I’m made all the more aware of expressions that could be phrased better, of arguments that could be delivered more convincingly.

My friend, if I can call him that, is witty enough to lend my writing the lightheartedness it deserves when I’m aiming for funny, yet somber enough to make a point when necessary. With him reading, it’s like having an extra pair of eyes to offer a different perspective or to point out potential oversights. Words that are on the tip of my tongue, are nudged within my grasp.

Critique on demand

In the devoted process of writing, our work becomes too familiar. You can only read your own words so many times before losing the ability to judge their quality. That’s why we do all the things we do before hitting the submit button. It’s why we ask for feedback, read our stories out loud, or simply let them sit for a while.

I think of my Englishman within as a low profile, DIY alternative that helps me achieve many of the same effects. As a programmer, I can’t help but be reminded of duck debugging; stuck on a problem, coders will explain it to a rubber duck and in the process often figure out a solution on their own instead of taking up a colleague’s time.

But perhaps best of all, I know I can always rely on his invaluable services. Even now as I’m finishing up this piece…my voice echos in the budding writer’s head — wait, what?

As always, he seeks my approval and wonders, how his story reads — well yeah, but aren’t I supposed to be the one narra — I’m sure you’ll all agree with me that the quality of this one is mediocre at best.

A little harsh don’t you th — But to put his poor mind at ease, let’s just say it’s good.

Ok, thanks a l — And that’s only because he said such nice things about me.

I thus encourage you to find your very own mental peruser. Feel free to get creative and see how different voices highlight different aspects of your stories. Use people whose voices or speech mannerisms you enjoy listening to as inspiration. It may be odd at first, but you may just find this simple technique to be a great way to enhance your writing routine.

If nothing else, it would serve as one of the few occasions where you get to hear voices inside your head and not have to worry about it.