It’s now easier than ever to publish our own works. While this is great in many ways, it also unfortunately means that the self-publishing market is overflowing with poor-quality books.
Anyone can write a book, but few can write a good one. Would you learn to play the violin without paying an instructor who’s had professional training? No. But plenty of writers throw themselves into the writing process without any training or hiring the help of an editorial professional.
You don’t have to fall into this trap, though. Working with a good editor will help your novel or short stories excel.
So, here you go: five reasons why you need a fiction editor.
1. A fresh pair of eyes
It doesn’t matter how experienced you are as a writer. When you’ve spent hours (days… weeks… months… years…) crafting your short stories or novel, it’s difficult to edit your own work.
This is because you internalise your writing. You become so used to your work that you miss those little things that aren’t clear, the repeated words, the plot holes.
That’s why even professional writers and editors need editors. Regardless of how much you’ve studied the craft of fiction, you need a fresh pair of eyes.
In short, everyone needs an editor.
2. An objective point of view
You know when you ask a friend to read your novel or short story and they tell you how good it is? That’s nice. But your work doesn’t improve.
A professional editor won’t be shy about critiquing your writing. Our goal is to help you make your novel or short fiction as strong as possible. An editor will point out the amendments you need to make before your readers let you know in their reviews.
That said, we’re not here to make you feel bad. A good editor will tell you the truth when something isn’t working, but they’ll also recognise how much time and effort has gone into your fiction and treat it with respect.
Our advice should be constructive and help you make your work as compelling as possible.
3. Save your frustration
Writing can be lonely. Self-editing can be even lonelier. It’s frustrating when you’ve revised and revised and revised, yet you know that your manuscript is still lacking that special something.
While it’s important to self-edit a few times before you hire a professional editor, a good editor should then give you a raft of opportunities to lift your writing to the next level.
For example, while a developmental editor will offer you big-picture story suggestions, a line editor or copyeditor will offer small, sentence-level changes that manicure each line.
If you’re not sure what kind of editor you need, take a look at this blog post.
4. Specialist advice
Lots of training goes into being a professional editor. For the record, I found my copyediting training with the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading much harder to wrap my head around than both of my writing-related degrees put together.
So, as long as you hire a qualified editor (anyone can call themselves an editor – just check that they really are), you’ll hire someone who has the skills to help your writing excel.
5. Stir your creativity
A good editor will have lots of skills to help you nurture your writing. We’ll give you ideas to push against and discuss. We’ll make suggestions that give you the stimulus to come up with more of your own ideas and solutions. We’ll make you think.
Help your writing reach its potential
When you hire a fiction editor, you’re not just hiring someone to fix basic mistakes. You’re hiring someone who can uncover the stylistic issues that are hiding in your draft, breathe life into your manuscript, and help you improve your writing ability. We’ll talk all things characterisation, pace, structure, language, dialogue, description, imagery, world-building, flow, readability, formatting… the list goes on.
About Charlotte
Charlotte is an award-winning writer and line/copyeditor who writes and edits for clients all over the world. She also works on the fiction team for Ambit, a UK literary and arts magazine.
She holds an international literary prize from Hammond House Publishing Group, two writing-related degrees, various marketing certifications, and training certificates from the Chartered Institute of Editing and Proofreading, of which she is a Professional Member.
Charlotte’s work has appeared in several anthologies, magazines, and literary journals, including Indigomania, Dream Catcher, and The Curlew.
She has also created a series of free self-editing cheat sheets to help new writers hone their fiction before sending their work off to a professional editor.
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