Five Reasons to Take Editing Seriously

When it comes to writing, I have my favorite parts of the process, and I have parts that I’d rather avoid or get over with as quickly as possible.

The actual writing part is my favorite, as one may imagine. Most writers would probably rank that at the top. We’re writers, we write, it makes sense.

But after the initial draft is finished, the editing begins. I dread this part, because it means going back over what I thought was a wonderful and flawless piece of writing during the initial phase, only to discover typos, awkward phrasing, underdeveloped points, and parts that I thought were clever while writing them that turn out to be…not that.

Editing is a necessary and critical phase of the writing process that should be taken seriously and done well. It can be tedious and it can take a while, but it’s all in the service of making that first draft that much better, rounding thoughts into a more refined form so that one’s ideas may be presented at their very best.

Writers may be tempted to short-change the editing phase due to impatience, an overinflated opinion of one’s own abilities, or boredom. But if you want the end product to be the best it can be, then you’ll need to buckle down and take this part of the work seriously.

Since I just completed edits on The Unintentional Interim, editing has been on my mind recently. So I made this list of five reasons why the editing phase is important.

1. The first draft is not the best draft – This should be filed under “duh.” But I’ve certainly had times when I thought there was no way I could possibly improve upon what I’d already written, only for a pair of trusted eyes to point out all the ways that I could. As satisfying as it feels to have that first draft done, now comes the time to improve all those things we couldn’t see when we initially wrote it all out.
2. The need to strike a balance between personal style and reader accessibility – I’ve told the story before about a sentence in my first book that, during the initial writing, I thought was very clever. It reflected how I’d somehow write on the blog as well, and I thought that this style would be fine for a book. My editor had a different opinion, and after I got over my indignation about it, I could see how much better the book would be by changing it. Editing helps writers consider how to express our own stylistic preferences while doing so with the highest quality.
3. Making sure your points are as clear as possible – There have been times when I thought I’d expounded enough on a given topic, only to find that it would be better served with a few additional sentences, paragraphs, or even a full chapter. We may be so familiar with our subject matter that we may assume certain things will be obvious to the reader. When we finally realize how faulty that assumption is, we can retool things to paint the clearest word picture possible.
4. The importance of seeing your work through others’ eyes – This may be the foundation on which every other point on the list is based. Whether you’re having someone else edit your work or doing it yourself, this is the phase during which you consider how readers will understand and receive your writing. This is less about trying to make everyone happy (which you won’t do) and more about wanting to be as clear, thorough, engaging, and accessible for your readers as possible, no matter your genre, style, and subject.
5. Are you sure you want to say it that way? – Are you assuming too much about your readers? Are you clear how the quote you used connects to your main point? Are you aware that a particular word or phrase that you want to use has a problematic connotation or history? Did you know you have a handful of words or phrases on which you rely too much? Editing helps us answer these questions and brings greater awareness to what we couldn’t see or know on our own.

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but they were the top reasons I could think of.

Happy editing…or something.