Editing from another point of view…
Following last week’s When To Ignore the Editor, I thought I’d further alienate my editing brethren by questioning their importance altogether. Somewhere there’s a cabal of proofreaders burning me in effigy.
Okay, so the title of this blog is misleading; of course you should edit your novel (or short story, novella, manifesto, etc). Readers don’t need to see your first draft. But I’m talking about the editing edit now. The proofreading. The line copy. The “bleeding” pages. Is it alright to do it yourself?
The accepted wisdom is “No,” and for several good reasons. I asked this same question on Facebook, and had some very smart people say some very smart things. You’ve read these words for years now, you know this story inside and out, you need someone else to tell you what’s wrong. You need perspective, and the best way to get that is by hiring…
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