How Even The Best Writers Can Benefit from Editing Services
Success! You’ve tapped the final keystroke on your short story or novel. But before you send your brainchild out into the wide world, there’s another critical step you need to take. While it might be tempting to toss your short story or novel or blog post into the waiting hands of your audience, doing so won’t serve your writing in the long run. Instead, it is time to ask for help from an editor.
If you’ve never worked with an editor before, this might sound like a waste of time, but even the most successful writers employ the help of a professional editor. In this article, we cover the role editors play in editor-writer relationships and how you can benefit from an extra pair of eyes on your work in progress.
What Editing Services Do for Professional Writers
In the most basic sense, professional editors work alongside writers to ensure the blog article or novel-in-progress is the best version it can be. Here are three main ways editing services improve writing:
1. Enhance Writing Quality
One of the main benefits of an editor is an outside perspective. As writers, we are the experts on our works. This is critical for our creative process. Writers must immerse themselves in their material and worlds. This comes with a drawback. Whether we are writing about a fictional world, the inner workings of a character, or the mechanics of a scientific experiment, we can fall prey to the curse of knowledge. In The Sense of Style, the cognitive psychologist and linguist Steven Pinker describes this curse:
The curse of knowledge is the single best explanation I know of why good people write bad prose. It simply doesn’t occur to the writer that her readers don’t know what she knows—that they haven’t mastered the patois of her guild, can’t divine the missing steps that seem too obvious to mention, have no way to visualize a scene that to her is as clear as day.
After researching our writing subjects for so long, we forget what it was like to learn about that material in the first place. It is a professional editor’s job to identify when the writer’s intended experience does not align with the reader’s actual experience. As an outsider with the experience to identify what works in the writing and what needs revising, an editor can counteract the curse of knowledge, catch errant grammar mistakes, and detect awkward prose.
2. Save Time and Effort
Even long-time editors need editors! Thinking objectively about your work is possible, but it is hard work. While some writers set their work aside for a few days or weeks to give themselves the distance they need to edit their writing, that isn’t feasible for everyone. If you want to get your writing out as soon as possible, and you don’t want to compromise on writing quality, send it to an editor. You’ll be happy with the results.
3. Gain a Fresh Perspective
Editors provide a critical fresh perspective to a work that can often highlight areas for growth that a lone writer might miss.
While the curse of knowledge is one of the most well-known results of over-familiarity with your writing, there are other ways a narrow perspective can limit writers. The act of drafting something, whether it’s an article or chapbook, requires intense focus. To create, most writers need to shut out the outside world. This doesn’t necessarily need to mean the romanticized ideal of a writer who delves into the forest and comes out with a novel.
Perhaps a more accurate statement is that writers need to immerse themselves in what they are crafting. This intense focus leads to magnificent works of art, and it also can occlude new options for your work. The role of a professional editor is to shine light on the roads not taken, a paragraph that might tie two ideas together or a scene that will provide the levity to make the tragic fall more poignant.
Writers stride into the dark with nothing but their pen and a lantern to light the way. Even writers who outline their works beforehand can be surprised by what they find. An editor enables the writer to look back and see the path they took and the landmarks they may have overlooked in the process.
Benefits of Editing Services for Blog Writers
Now that we’ve gone over the basic ways editing services can help writers, let’s get into some specifics! Whether you’re a marketing business, a local editing organization, or a professional writer, you need to have a blog. A blog is one of the best ways to extend your organic reach. It shows your audience and algorithms what your business (or your writerly self) is all about.
1. Higher-Performing SEO
Professional editors provide SEO tips to ensure your target audience finds your website.
Even if your prose is perfect, it may not find an audience. In the digital age, website content must work with search algorithms, which means employing keywords. An experienced editor should ensure the blog post contains well-researched and targeted keywords relevant to the topic. These keywords should be seamlessly integrated into the content, including the title, headings, and body, to optimize for search engine algorithms.
Additionally, the editor should focus on crafting compelling meta titles and descriptions, as they directly impact click-through rates from search engine results. Structuring the content with clear headings and subheadings not only enhances readability but also signals the post's hierarchy to search engines. Moreover, the editor can contribute to SEO by incorporating internal and external links to reputable sources, thereby improving the post's credibility and authority.
Regularly updating and refreshing content also signals to search engines that the information is current and valuable. By collaborating with writers to create high-quality, engaging, and shareable content, editors can contribute significantly to improving a blog post's SEO and ultimately driving organic traffic to the website.
2. Improved Readability
An editor plays a pivotal role in enhancing the readability of a blog post, ensuring that the content is not only informative but also easily digestible for the audience. Here are a few ways an editor will optimize for readability:
Address Overall Structure: An editor will organize your content with clear and concise introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions. Breaking down complex ideas into smaller, reader-friendly sections with appropriate headings and subheadings helps improve the flow and accessibility of the content.
Fine-tune Tone and Language Level: The editor should pay attention to the language used, opting for a conversational tone and avoiding unnecessary jargon. Sentence and paragraph length should be varied to maintain reader interest and prevent monotony.
Implement Bullet-point Lists: The use of bullet points, numbered lists, and visuals like images and infographics can further enhance comprehension and engagement.
Center Target Audience: Effective writing needs to be tailored to match audience preferences and level of understanding.
By collaborating closely with writers and fine-tuning these elements, editors contribute significantly to creating blog posts that captivate readers and deliver information in a reader-friendly manner.
Professional Editing for Fiction Writers
Editing services address overall structure, dialogue, tone, language complexity, and plot to facilitate an enjoyable reader experience.
While the craft of storytelling is an art form that writers pour their hearts into, the journey from the initial spark of an idea to a polished manuscript involves more than inspiration. For fiction writers, the importance of meticulous editing cannot be overstated. Editing serves as the chisel that refines the raw material of a narrative, transforming it into a masterpiece that captivates readers from the first page to the last.
Editors achieve this by meticulously examining the plot structure, character arcs, and overall coherence of the storyline. They identify areas where the narrative might benefit from heightened tension, improved pacing, or enhanced character development. With a focus on the big picture, editors help writers transform their initial drafts into cohesive and compelling narratives that resonate with readers.
On the more granular level, editors can help writers elevate their dialogue, an element which many consider the lifeblood of a well-crafted story. Here, the editor steps in as a dialogue maestro, fine-tuning conversations to sound natural, purposeful, and reflective of each character's unique voice. By offering constructive feedback on dialogue flow, tone, and relevance, editors ensure that conversations within the narrative not only serve the plot but also captivate the reader's imagination. Through this collaborative process, writers can refine their characters' interactions, elevating the overall quality of the storytelling experience.
Moreover, a skilled editor brings invaluable genre expertise to the table, recognizing and understanding the nuances specific to various literary landscapes. Whether the writer is crafting a mystery, fantasy, romance, or science fiction, the editor's genre-specific knowledge allows for a deeper exploration of conventions, expectations, and trends within that particular literary realm. This expertise enables writers to not only meet but often exceed reader expectations, crafting narratives that seamlessly align with the conventions of the chosen genre while injecting fresh perspectives and innovative elements. In essence, editors serve as genre guides, helping writers navigate the intricacies of their chosen literary domain and ensuring that their stories resonate authentically within those boundaries.
Finding the Right Editor
The writer-editor relationship should be a partnership. Make sure that you and your editor’s goals for your work align.
Finding the right editor is a crucial step in the writing journey, and the process involves a thoughtful approach to match individual needs with editorial expertise. Here are a few strategies we suggest to help you find the right editor for you and your writing:
Thoroughly Research Potential Editors: Explore their professional backgrounds, credentials, and portfolios to assess their experience with projects similar to yours. Seek client testimonials and reviews to gain insights into their working style and the satisfaction of previous collaborators.
Reach out Directly: If your editor sounds like they might be the best fit, contact them via a consultation or email to discuss your project. This will help you gauge their communication skills and enthusiasm for your work.
Ask for Work Samples: Most editors will have examples of work within your genre/form. Even if they haven’t worked with your specific genre or form, they should provide samples of their editing process. Since you will be working closely with this individual on your work, it’s important to determine if you have compatible work styles.
Ultimately, the right editor is a collaborator who respects your unique voice, understands your goals, and is committed to helping you achieve the highest possible quality for your written work.
Want Help from a Professional Editor?
At Work Done Write, we understand that the relationship between a writer and an editor must be built on mutual understanding and trust. That's why we offer professional consultation services to help you find a creative practice that works for you. With experience as a professional ghostwriter, editor, and writing mentor, I'm here to put my expertise to use for you. If you're ready to take your writing journey to the next level, contact Work Done Write today. Let's unlock your full writing potential together and make your literary dreams a reality.
