This third part of my ‘Getting Published’ guide is all about finding, working with and being grateful for editors.

Here’s a true story for you.

I go to a great writers’ group each month, and I recall a few years ago at a meeting this wonderful man became really passionate when I was talking about writing books. Sadly, he’s no longer with us, but his words stay with me. He had a lovely Scottish accent. And he said:

‘No. It’s your creative work. You’ve written it. You’ve created it. Someone else cannot come along and change it. That’s just terrible.’

Bless him. I loved his sense of justice and fairness.

But I was talking about the editing process, and how wise it is to have another pair of eyes – no, several pairs of experienced and knowledgeable eyes, to read your work and give you fair, balanced feedback, so that you can improve.

Editing is vital. Without it, your writing won’t get better. It won’t be as good as it can be. It’s not possible that it’s good enough in its first draft, because you’re human.

We all know the Stephen King quotation about editing his work. ‘Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings.’

Several other writers have been credited with those words, but the original might have been Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in his 1916 book, On the Art of Writing. Let’s spell out exactly what he meant – that it’s important to identify and eliminate any part of your writing — characters, scenes, sentences, side plots, words — that, while you might love them, don’t serve your story.

End of.

Here are some brilliant quotations on the same theme that you might enjoy.

“Remember, when people tell you something is wrong or it doesn’t work for them, they are almost always right. When they tell you exactly what they think is wrong and how to fix it, they are almost always wrong.” — Neil Gaiman

“I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.” — Valdimir Nabokov.

“I’ve had the same editor since 1967. Many times he has said to me over the years or asked me, Why would you use a semicolon instead of a colon? And many times over the years I have said to him things like: I will never speak to you again. Forever. Goodbye. That is it. Thank you very much. And I leave. Then I read the piece and I think of his suggestions. I send him a telegram that says, OK, so you’re right. So what? Don’t ever mention this to me again. If you do, I will never speak to you again”

― Maya Angelou

I love all these quotations but Maya Angelou’s relates closely to what the wonderful man at my writing group was saying. Sometimes a writer, who is a creative and well-meaning soul and has put all their best effort and sweat and tears and heart into what they’ve written, can feel a little bit hurt when some of their work is removed or changed.

But hanging on to what you put in your first draft isn’t a luxury you can have as a writer. It makes no sense aesthetically.

Take this as my best advice so far. Get a good editor that you trust. Use their skills wisely.

I’ve heard friends and fellow writers justify their own work when an editor has asked them to modify or change or adapt. I can’t, they say. The editor’s wrong, they say.  Because their partner thought it was wonderful. Or they think it works because it made them cry when they wrote it. Or they just know it’s right.

Let’s be honest, once your work is accepted to be published, editing is part of the professional refining process. It’s a privilege to work with skilled people who have insight and talent and experience. And if you’re lucky, they’ll nudge you in the right direction every time and do so with absolute skill, kindness and sensitivity.

The last thing they want you to feel like is that they’ve just marked your essay and given it a D plus. But it will – and this is important –be covered in corrections.

I’ll say it again. That’s what we all want, improvement. For the book to be the best it can be. Writer and editor are a team.

And because this is a piece on getting published, with specific reference to the importance of editing, I’m going to share two secrets with you.

Firstly I’d be embarrassed if you saw my books pre-edit. I write ridiculous things. I repeat words and phrases at times like a chorus. I get facts wrong. I put the Algarve in Spain once. And it’s not because I’m stupid or because I don’t know better, it’s because I’ve written 4,000 words in a day. 80, 000 words in seven weeks. The creative process has gripped me and I’ve been working six days a week like a writer possessed, and the last thing I’ve been thinking about was a missed semicolon. Then spell check thwarts me and puts something in that I haven’t intended, and I didn’t notice.

I edit my work several times before anyone else sees it, but I’m sometimes blind to my own mistakes. It happens to us all. I’ve lost count of the number of writers who tell me their protagonists have had blue eyes in chapter two and brown ones in chapter ten.

Second secret. Although I love editing and I enjoy the intellectual process of making my books better, once – just once – it really knocked my confidence. I was in a low place anyway. It happens to us all. I’m fine now.

To balance it out, I do get things right sometimes – characters, plots, story lines, facts even. I’ve made editors cry. And laugh. And go cold. I’m doing OK.

My worst failing? Probably sequencing numbers. How many writers have missed out a whole day in their book? Or written chapter 29 after chapter 27? I’ve done that. But now I know I do it, I try not to.

Editors must cringe at what we write sometimes. Or laugh. Or curse. Because writers are human and fallible. But we’re writers. And our job is to give our readers the best novel we can. And editors are editors – it’s their job to correct our mistakes and guide us to the best of ourselves. Without us they wouldn’t be employed. Without them, we probably wouldn’t!

And oh, the stuff editors find that I’ve missed! I’m always so impressed. Recently, someone was looking at one of my manuscripts and corrected a mistake about salmon fishing and fly lines. They’d researched it and put it right.

Thank goodness. A knowledgeable reader would have spotted it.

I’m a great fan of editors. They are kind, caring, careful people and I’d be lost without them. Yes, there will still be mistakes at the end of a novel, even after a book is edited many times. We’re all fallible. A reader messaged me once to say that on p 143 of a certain book the ‘t’ had been missed from the word ‘the.’

Really?

So, the purpose of this post is to say how vital editors are; how, without them, our books would be less professional and readable than they are.

No one person writes a novel. We’re a team.

So, my advice to you as a budding writer, is to edit your manuscript yourself thoroughly. Walk away, wait, come back and edit it again.

Then embrace all the external editing you can get, but do it discerningly. Your best friend who reads two books a year, or your dad who loves you to distraction, these people might not be your best editor. Tastes differ. Subjectivity is often at play. You need someone who edits every day, who can be impartial and clear-headed.

You can certainly count on a professional editor knowing exactly what your book needs. I count on them, all the time. All the edits – structure, copy, line, there are mistakes to be found on all levels. And we need to find them, root them out and move on.

So don’t be afraid to kill your darlings. And do love your editor as your best writing friend.

I do. Thank goodness for them all.

J x