📝 10 Things Not to Say to a Writer When They’re Editing

Editing – that magical time when a writer transforms their messy, overcaffeinated draft into something extraordinary.

It is not for the faint-hearted. A writer will journey to hell and back during a book edit.

Please treat your writer with care as they are performing a miracle and don’t say any of the below. I have added my thoughts alongside each one.

“You’re still working on that book?” – if you want to be really annoying place emphasis on the word ‘still’ and combine this with a look of concern. “How long can it take to fix a few typos?” – the person who says this knows nothing about editing and deserves to have a cushion thrown at them. “Didn’t you already write this?” – this deserves another cushion to be chucked in their direction.“Can I read it?” – definitely not! “It can’t be that bad.” – For top tier annoyance – follow this up with – “When I eventually write my book I will get it right first time.” Make sure you have been threatening to write a book for years but never got round to doing it.“You don’t need to do all this editing. You’re being dramatic.” One of my favs. Usually spoken by someone who knows 0 about writing / editing. “Tell me again what your book is about? – No! “Why don’t you just write one draft?” – because we like to cause ourselves pain!“Just make it up.’ No comment.“I thought you said you would take three months to write and edit it?” The only response to this is to laugh hysterically.

Editing is hard and it requires a different skill to writing. You also need to be tough enough to delete the bits you think are good which are usually naff.

Be nice to your writer during their editing stage.