Purposeful Prose: Editors and the Tough Stuff

Dear Purposeful Prose,

I had a hard time giving my writing to an editor for the first time. I completely self-edited my first book, but I’ve learned that if I keep doing that, I’m going to be stuck in a rut throughout my writing journey. My editor has a lot of great ideas, but the issue is in the details. There are a few writing quirks that I had that I thought worked well in my manuscript. I like to sometimes repeat wording for emphasis, for example, and when I do it, I like how it sounds. My editor showed me exactly how often I’ve been doing that and how that kind of writing loses its effectiveness if I use it too much. I also like to use a lot of fragments, but again, my editor showed me how an effective fragment works well in some places but not so much in others. I don’t take my editors’ suggestions, but it seems as though every time I get something back from her, I have to think deeply about how I’ve been writing, and I wonder whether I am good at writing in the first place or whether I’m just kidding myself. Is my editor doing the right thing, and is writing actually a good fit for me?

As a peek behind the curtain, I sometimes have to edit the messages I receive for grammar, for brevity, or for clarity. In this message, there were a few typos, but for my purposes, there wasn’t much fundamental, essential editing to do. I’m not your editor, and I’m not working with you to ensure that your letter is the best that it can be. However, I am a teacher, and I can answer your question with the aid of an example. 

I have edited several essays over the years, and every writer who hands me their essay has a specific goal in mind. Some writers need more help with their fundamentals, sentence structure, and grammar. So, our lessons will focus on getting that student to the point where full sentences are coming together effectively. Other times, we’re working on paragraph structure with organized topic sentences, supporting details, and transition sentences. 

Students that have effective structure and can string together sentences with relative ease know to expect extensive revision notes from me. The differences between the student who can easily write out their essay and the students still working through sentence structure are their notes and their needs.

The quality of a person’s writing has nothing to do with the amount of notes, comments, and suggested edits that they receive. 

You stated in your letter that you sought out an editor because you felt as though you were stuck in a rut, and you felt you had more to learn. That’s as good a reason as any to seek a professional opinion. While your letter did not specify, my hope is that your editor gave a sample edit so that expectations would be set for how the both of you would work together.

You mentioned that you don’t accept all of your editor’s suggestions, which is alright. The final decision on accepting or rejecting edits is your own. 

Do you feel as though your editor is altering your writers’ voice or substituting their own out of bias instead of clear rationale?

One of the editors’ tasks is to accompany the writer in refining their work such that it communicates the writer’s message and retains the writer’s voice. Editors use style guides, experience with other texts, research, and training to fuel their suggestions. Bias can filter in, so it’s important to make sure that your editor has clear reasoning behind their decisions. While it’s not necessary to pick every single comment or edit apart, make sure that if you don’t understand a suggestion an editor makes, start by understanding why it was made. 

Sometimes, writers will feel that suggested edits impede upon their voice as a writer. An assertion like this slips into difficult territory when the edits are based in errors in grammar or word choice, repetition [as you brought up], gaps in narrative consistency, unclear perspectives, or drastic shifts in tone. 

There are pieces of writing that contain errors on purpose, and if the goal of the writing has been realized and the errors have aided in that purpose, then there’s nothing wrong with that. However, when the error made is seen to obstruct the goal of your writing, it is likely that the editor will suggest making changes. Suggestions like these are not about voice, and that’s where editors will feel difficulty.

As an author, you will have the final say in what is or is not included in your writing, but you do yourself a service when you better understand:

• Your editor’s reasoning behind their suggestions.

• How your editor’s suggestions help or hinder the goals of your writing.

• Whether your editor is impeding on your voice or fixing something that’s holding your writing back.
  

It’s common, when working with a good mentor, that they’ll push back on long-held beliefs that might no longer be serving you. Editors often recognize writing habits in others that, in their execution, are holding their writing back. This does not make you a bad writer, and this doesn’t make your strategy universally ineffective. This means that you are learning to refine your style and give your story what it needs to achieve your goals. This means you’re a writer, and your desire to develop means that you will not plateau.

If you have a writing or editing-focused question, I would be more than happy to dedicate a post to you. Contact us with any questions you might have or to schedule a free consultation with yours truly!

All submissions will remain anonymous unless you explicitly request for me to include your name.