The Curse of the Editor

They're not bad people, really.   They put their pants on one leg at a time, just like you, just like me.

Except they really aren't good people, either.  While they put their pants on one leg at a time, they think that you don't do it the right way.  You need to put your pants on their way. 

OK, maybe that's a bit harsh.  H.G. Wells said, "No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft."  Even so, let me say for the record that only some editors are bad people. 

The role of the editor is to bring out the clarity hidden in someone's draft.  They read all the way through before making a single suggestion.  They don't start out with a pencil in their hand, nor do they click track changes and immediately commence with the blood-letting.

The good ones are careful people.  They are careful to see that the topic at hand is covered.  They look for balance, and grammar, and stuff that writers like me always seem to forget.  They remember your foibles ... like using ellipses way, way too frequently.  When you write, "It's the exact same thing," they point out that exact and same are, well, redundant.  They point out, appropriately so, that realtor is not realator, that toward never, never ends with an s. 

It's your job to get just a little piqued because you should have known that.  They also catch the misspelled names, and you really should have known that. 

The problem comes in with the bad ones, those who have more confidence in their own writing, their own style, than they really should. 

Just as there's over-writing, there's also over-editing.  That's the work of people who can't write, so they try to hide it with a red pen on your draft.  They have no appreciation for rhythm or cadence.  They read somewhere that only facts matter, so why begin with "Four score and seven years ago, " when you can say "In 1776"?  Geezy-peezy, you just saved four words.  They cut segues and leave it to the reader to connect the dots.  Sometimes, they just flat out cut too many dots.  Then, there's this little thing called style, and that is what's supposed to make reading enjoyable.  In search of brevity, they cut without thinking.  They rearrange phrases, stripping them of the good stuff. 

Even with all of this, remember that you can learn from bad editors, and really, you should.  No one is above editing, even though it's kind of fun to pretend you are.   It's just funner when a good editor reads your work.