How Editors Help Writers

Many people believe that editors are there just to correct grammatical mistakes, or punctuation misplaced, but there is more to it. An Editor’s job is to provide beneficial feedback to bring out the best in a story, article, online media, etc. The editor brings misconceptions, poor storylines, and extra work that may be needed, to the author’s attention. What you get from editors are:

Honesty

There are two levels to the type of honesty that editors give. The first one is mild, and what I mean is, some editors like to spare feelings. When telling an author that their work may not be up to par, you have to know how to pick and choose your words depending on the client, or not. An editor will try to make the criticism sound as pleasant as possible, even if it is bad, they don’t want to discourage you from continuing to write a great story because it needs work. The second one is harsh, some editors do not care about your feelings, but only about the finished project; which in hindsight makes sense because they see the potential for your work and only want to push you to greatness. Either form of honesty will boost your ability to write a better story.

Encouragement

An Editor finds pride in the ability to encourage an author to further their work. The goal is not to discourage when they give feedback, it is to encourage you to believe in yourself and your imagination to crank out a work of art; something that will resonate with many people.

An Open Ear

An Editor is a good listener. Before editing your work, they get a feel for the project and what the goal of the project is and how you want to go about that. Then, while editing, all is applied to that job so there are no misconceptions when they present the edited work. Editors work with you on what you want people to pull from it, and we suggest how it can be done, what you have to do moving forward and make sure that you’re consistent. By listening to your wants and goals of your project, they hope to inspire through feedback and suggestion of what they have listened to you say.

Open-Ended Questions

Editors will challenge you. They ask questions that will generate new ideas, new perspectives, and maybe even a new storyline or direction you want to go in. Some questions may be, where do you see your project going, what impact do you want this project to have on your audience, what do you think works in your story, what do you think may need some work, etc. All these questions help you not only analyze your own work but also get a feel for what an editor does in ways to help you produce good work.

Constant Communication

An editor will be in constant contact with you unless you two discuss terms of communication. You should be kept updated on the progress of editing your project. Deadlines are met, and in case it cannot be, you will be notified.