Writing an entire manuscript is no small feat. It can take a lot of time, effort, and dedication to get it just right – which is why most authors tend to grow attached to their work and can sometimes feel uncomfortable with the idea of someone else going over it. If you’re unsure whether to self-edit your manuscript or hire a pro to do it, there are a few things you should keep in mind.
1. Typing Errors
Typos seem to just be a fact of life, no matter how pedantic you are. However, even though they’re common, they are still pretty distracting and can take away from your work. Of course, you can go over your manuscript yourself, however, you might not be able to catch them simply because you know the text too well. When we read and re-read the same material, our brains tend to gloss over the mistakes. On the other hand, if you look into hiring a professional editor – whether you’re looking for short story editing services or someone to potentially edit a novel you wrote, you can rest assured that there’ll be no typos, misspellings, or grammatical errors in your work. If you plan to publish your work, this really should be one of your top priorities.
2. Readability
In essence, readability refers to how easy it is for a reader to read and understand your work. There are a few things that can make your manuscript less readable, such as dense text, long paragraphs, and complex sentence structures. On the other hand, paragraphs that are too short can also make the text harder to read because it will seem choppy. A professional editor can help to ensure that your work is easy to read and understand – which is definitely something you want, especially if you’re submitting your manuscript to agents or publishers. Ensuring that your work is highly readable is incredibly important whether you’re a content writer or a novelist. It’s what makes people more or less likely to really enjoy your work and recommend it to others. To be fair, this is something that’s much easier to fix on your own than catching typos, but it’s still a lot of work.
3. Structure And Flow
Your manuscript’s structure and flow are important, especially if you want to publish your work. You want to have a storyline that runs smoothly from beginning to end. Even when you’re experimenting with different writing styles, such as a nonlinear timeline, the story should still make sense. Newer authors sometimes tend to give precedence to the form over the content, but this can be a mistake. The structure of your work should add to the story, not take away from it. If you’ve managed to successfully write in the stream of consciousness style – which is incredibly hard to accomplish, you might not have the heart to change it in places where the content might need a bit more clarity. Apart from that, since you know the story through and through, you might find it difficult to move certain chapters around because you think that it’s clear enough the way it is. Having someone that’s not as attached to the story going over it and making suggestions on how you can tweak your work so that it’s more structurally sound and flows better might be a good option in cases like these.
4. Wordiness
Oftentimes, authors can be too descriptive or use too many words when they don’t need to. This can make the text difficult to read and take away from the overall impact of the story. Again, if you’re very proud of a sentence you wrote, you might not be inclined to delete or even change it – simply because you like the way it sounds. This is a pretty common occurrence, but it’s important to note that the best authors that went down in history didn’t keep everything they wrote in their manuscripts – they ruthlessly edited their work to make it the best that it could be. You need to have an honest conversation with yourself about this. Are you being as critical as you should be towards your writing? And if you do think that there might be some things that aren’t strictly necessary, are you able to determine which ones those would be? Professional editors can help you to cut down on superfluous words and tighten up your writing, making it more concise and powerful, while still keeping the best parts intact.
5. Inconsistencies And Plot Holes
When developing characters, authors can sometimes think about them so much that they consider certain things to be a given. Perhaps, while writing a specific plot point, you imagined how the protagonist’s facial expression would change, and to you – that would hint at the reader that they’re feeling a certain way. However, if someone else were to read your work, they might not be able to infer the same thing because they don’t know the protagonist as well as you do. Or, if you’re writing a longer work, you might forget about a particular plot point that was introduced earlier on and it’ll eventually come back to haunt you. Finally, you might simply find yourself unsure on how to solve a particular issue and go down the deus ex machina route, which can also be a problem. Inconsistencies and plot holes are something that can easily be corrected with the help of a professional editor. They’ll be able to help you fill in the blanks, make sure that there are no loose ends, and suggest ways for you to resolve any problematic plot points. It’s important to note that an editor won’t ever write your work for you. The work would still be completely yours, and it will solely depend on you whether or not you manage to make it better after reading the editor’s notes when it comes to improving the storyline.
6. The Reader
Finally, while you may be a great writer, if you’ve never published anything before, you might not be completely aware of who your readers are going to be. A big part of publishing a book successfully is knowing who your target audience is, as well as how to best market it. If there’s something in your storyline that you’ve only glossed over, but your potential readers might really like, an experienced editor can point it out to you so that you could consider expanding on it. Of course, you should never change your writing style to fit anyone else but yourself, and the most important thing is to ensure you don’t compromise your work just to suit the general public. That’s why having an editor whose judgment you can trust is important – that way, you’ll be aware of the potential hurdles the readers might face when trying to read your work, without having to compromise your own artistic vision.
