Writers’ eyelids often droop in the final stages of editing work for publication. Even professional editors who review manuscripts don’t always produce impeccable results. A veteran journalist once told me that, even after six revisions, the California State Press had never published any text without errors. Clearly, editing perfection can be an elusive goal that’s always receding on the horizon.
Most experts agree that writing occurs in a process of stages such as prewriting, writing, proofreading, editing, and publishing. It’s not unusual for writers to love the pre-writing phase of the process: daydreaming, drawing, mapping, freewriting, etc. And writing a first draft can be an exciting treat, as millions of people have discovered in the popular National Novel Writing Month (also known as NaNoWriMo), which has taken place online every November since 1999. readers As EB White said, “The best writing is rewriting.”
The revision differs from the edition mainly in that the first one looks for “global” aspects such as the general narrative arc, the organization of the piece as a whole, the consistency between the annotated facts, etc. Later, or at the same time, writers and editors find and fix smaller “local” text elements that can annoy and distract readers. Improving and polishing the first draft text in both ways is essential to producing a quality reading experience for your audience.
As a writing instructor at a California community college, I have studied and taught all phases of the writing process. Eagle-eyed editing methods include reading the work aloud (and listening!), reading the work backwards one line at a time, and asking others to read it. But often writers just can’t catch their own mistakes; however, it is a common part of human nature to find joy in identifying the mistakes of others. (An image of the teacher with a red pen in hand may come to mind.)
A college colleague of mine once proclaimed that we are all teaching what we most need to learn, which I have found to be very true. As an author, I have worked hard to sharpen my own editing eyes. Invariably though, despite many revision passes by external editors and myself, I find bugs popping up, some jarring and some barely noticeable. A few days ago, I discovered a blunder in one of my books, at the revision/edit level, an error I wonder if astute readers will notice. Discovering this flaw once again underscores the point that while the proverbial “too many cooks” may spoil the broth, “too many editors” might be welcome at the newsroom.
