The Role of an Editor

Melissa BreauToday's guest blog is from Melissa Breau, a freelance editor who enjoys long walks on the beach and arguing about comma placement. She believes in helping authors ensure their readers focus on the story, not the words. Melissa has a Masters of Publishing and did her time in the industry working at Pet Business Magazine, Columbia University Press and in a college marketing department. For more about her and her services, check out her website or follow her on twitter @melissabreau.

It’s an editor’s job to make sure your readers can see the forest despite the trees; that is, they don’t get caught up on typos and mistakes that will cause them to focus on the words instead of the story. And in the process, a good editor will look for things you probably haven’t considered, like…

Consistency and Style

Editors can keep a style guide (some only do so upon request, so make sure your editor plans to) that will track character descriptions and even descriptions of their accessories to make sure a character doesn’t change in some vital way mid-book.

In a recent novel, I had to point out to the author that one of her character’s steeds must have had a sex change operation mid-book—and if not, then perhaps that required some revision.

In another case, a character was tackled from behind and somehow landed front-side up. A rather unlikely scenario, don’t you think?

Accuracy and Pizazz

When you know what you meant to say, sometimes it’s easy to overlook what you actually wrote. An editor will make sure the town name in Chapter 3 is spelled the same way when it’s mentioned again in Chapter 8. And she’ll check to make sure you used nock, not knock—one involves fitting an arrow to a bow, the other to strike a sounding blow. Both might take your villain off his feet, but certainly not in the same manner.

A good editor can help you make sure your readers see your storyline—instead of just words on a page—by checking each word to make sure it’s essential to its sentence. They will also check each sentence to make sure it’s necessary in its paragraph, and every paragraph to make sure it’s critical to the story.

Logic and Redundancy

Speaking of wordiness, can you tell what’s wrong with the following phrases?

“Advance planning”

“Close proximity”

“Original source”

“Fresh beginning”

If you noticed that they’re a tad redundant, then you catch on quick. An editor will also make sure you’re not redundant with other things—like your chapter numbers. You’d be surprised how often a book that at first appears to have 22 parts turns out to have 25 because the numbers 13-16 repeat themselves.

Finally, she’ll break it to you lightly when your logic just doesn’t add up. Your test readers may have giving you raving reviews, but sometimes friends and family are hesitant to point out something that doesn’t quite add up. An editor is paid to make sure you’re aware of things that don’t sit right, though she may leave it up to you to decide what to do about it.

Clarity and Clichés

You’ve heard, “show, don’t tell”? Well, sometimes as writers, we show AND tell; an editor will let you know when you’ve drawn the picture well enough that you don’t need a caption—or when a metaphor doesn’t draw the picture quite well enough.

A metaphor (or simile) is there to give the reader additional information and help them imagine for themselves what you’ve already envisioned. Your editor will let you know when yours isn’t doing its job. And she’ll point out when you pour the baby out with the bathwater by using a phrase that’s been around the block a time or two—a.k.a., using a cliché.

Grammar and Punctuation

Okay, this may be more what you’re expecting. Yes, in addition to everything I’ve mentioned above, an editor will still check for the basics of good grammar (although as you may have figured out by now, that’s far from their only purpose).

They will seek out typos and look for subject-verb agreement, to make sure the parts of your sentence aren’t about to declare war. They’ll help you avoid pronoun confusion (for example, when Billy said Daniel broke his vase, whose vase is it that was shattered? Was Billy leveling an accusation or letting you know why ol’ Danny boy may seem a little downtrodden?). And, if there’s anything they don’t know, they’ll know where to look it up.

Sure, it’s likely your editor will geek out if you ask them if she’s for or against the serial comma, or their opinion on whether Internet deserves its capital ‘I’ when web settles for a little ‘w’ and they might even get a little giddy if you ask them if it’s ‘toward’ or ‘towards’ (hint: it depends which side of the sea you’re on).  But your editor will also make your book better and your writing stronger—to the benefit of both you and your reader. Who doesn’t want that?