What editing is

I often see misconceptions about what editing is. There's a tendency to associate it with proofreading or copy editing, which is the phase of editing that focuses on grammar, punctuation, spelling, basic consistency problems, word repetition, and the like. Copy editors know the difference between faze and phase. They know that you can't have two Saturdays in a row (unless that is one of the quirks of your invented world).

But this is not the whole world of editing--far from it. Applying only this layer of editing to a manuscript is like frosting a bowl of cake batter, instead of waiting for the cake to come out of the oven.

Editing is about looking at the manuscript on a global level as well. Does the pacing work, or does it drag in some places and race in others? Is there a central conflict, and is it resolved? Are there subplots, and do they relate to the central plot in a meaningful way, or are they just kind of stuck on as extras? Will readers become invested in these characters? Does the plot make sense; is it believable? Is there a theme or some answer to the "so what?" question? Is every scene necessary? Are we missing part of the story? And so on. This is the kind of editing that may result in adding or subtracting characters, moving scenes or chapters around, rewriting whole sections, chopping out other sections, adding scenes, introducing new events or deleting old ones. Yet a good editor doesn't impose a vision on a story, but rather suggests approaches that could enhance the author's vision. A good editor is open to the multiple approaches that an author can use in fixing a story.

I never hand in a manuscript until I'm confident in it, until it has no flaws that I can see. And then the editorial letter opens doors in my mind. What I thought was a smoothly painted surface turns out, on closer inspection, to have chips and scratches and uneven spots. And sometimes I realize that the whole wall would look better if painted a different shade.