From The SRP Editor site:
After you’ve been editing fiction for a while, patterns emerge.
Not in the writing itself — that part stays endlessly interesting — but in the expectations writers bring to the process. Some of them are harmless. Some of them make the work harder than it needs to be.
So, in the spirit of clarity rather than complaint, here are five things editors wish writers knew.
1. Editors Don’t “Fix” Books. They Help Them Work
An editor is not a repair technician. We don’t take a broken manuscript, swap out a few parts, and hand you back something that suddenly runs.
What we do is help a manuscript function the way you intended. That means clarity, pacing, emotional logic, and consistency, not rewriting the book in our own voice.
If the story works, editing helps it work better. If it doesn’t, editing shows you why.
2. A Clean Manuscript Is Not a Finished Manuscript
Spellcheck passing is not the same thing as readiness. A manuscript can be:
- grammatically clean,
- neatly formatted,
- and still structurally unstable.
Editing isn’t about commas first. It’s about whether scenes land, characters act believably, and the story moves with purpose. The clean-up comes later.
3. Cutting a Scene Is Not a Judgment on You as a Person
This one matters. When an editor suggests cutting or combining a scene, they’re not saying:
- you’re a bad writer,
- the scene is worthless,
- or the effort was wasted.
They’re saying the story works better without it, or with it reimagined elsewhere. No words are wasted if they taught you something.
4. Editors Are On Your Side, Even When It Doesn’t Feel Like It
Good editing can feel uncomfortable.
- It asks questions you didn’t expect.
- It pokes at places you thought were settled.
- It sometimes dismantles things you were proud of.
That discomfort is not antagonism. It’s engagement. An editor who pushes is an editor who cares whether the book succeeds.
5. The Best Writers Still Use Editors
Especially the best writers.
Experience doesn’t eliminate blind spots. It just changes where they are. Familiarity with your own work can make it harder to see what’s actually on the page versus what you meant to put there.
Editing isn’t a remedial step. It’s part of the craft. Good editors don’t want control. They want clarity.
And the best editing relationships are collaborations built on trust, not ego.
— Mark.
