TL;DR - A rant about being sent first drafts to edit.
For most of the writers I know, editing is their least favorite and underdeveloped task. You always hear the same excuses as to why someone can't edit, especially among self publishing writers.
I'm a better writer than most. I don't need a lot of editing.
I'm a creative person, not an editor. Editing stifles my creativity.
I'm not that good at editing.
I don't want it to change my story too much.
It's not that important, as long as people understand the story.
I just don't like doing it.
I did edit.
The truth is, where you're true writing skill shows through.
I've been free-lance editing for self publishing authors for a couple few years now, and even the best writers I've worked with do a lot of editing. Imagine playing poker with only the first 5 cards you are dealt every hand.
First Draft
First draft is just for getting ideas down and give yourself something to mix around. Writing as much and as fast as you can is usually the goal of most first drafts.
Unfortunately, I get too many of these with minor spelling fixes. It's annoying and a bit insulting. Everyone has ideas. Go to a party with a little bit of alcohol and tell people you're a writer and you'll get more volunteered than you care to hear. It requires little skill or art of the author to write a first draft and puts a lot of work on the editor to turn a crap manuscript into something more. And when the author fails to get sales, it's often the editor they blame.
Revisions
Revisions give you an opportunity to change everything about your story from perspective, to themes, to plot. But a revision is not the draft you should be submitting either. While the story can be refined, redefined, and strengthened, you still need to treat whatever comes out of a revision as a first draft.
Self editing
A spellcheck. A grammar check. These are good starts, but not enough. If you don't think the piece is ready to go to publication, it's not done with this step. You should perform every bit of writing magic, pull out all those writing aphorisms you like to live by, and go over word and sentence with the eye for detail you keep putting on your resume. Once you've done everything you know how to do to your story, once you feel you can not delete one more word or clarify one more description, then you are ready to be done with self editing. Now you get other people to read it.
Friends & Family
These people are only going to tell you how great your writing is. Let your ego get nice and fat at this point because getting feedback from editors can be harsh. If you have thin skin, this may be where you want to stop.
Editors
That's right. Editors. There is not one monolithic editing role that every editor fills. Some editors give you feedback on your story. They point out the continuity gaps, the logical fallacies, and bad plots. This is the type of editing I prefer to do. Other editors like to do line editing to help you fix your run on sentences, misuses of then and than, and coma splices. And still other editors only want point out every bad punctuation point.
What you get back from editors may not be be what you want to read. You will find out that your favorite scene is completely pointless. You will find out there is a massive plot hole that renders your whole premise implausible, or that your protagonist is a totally flat character. You'll probably hate the editor, and feel like they are trying to prove how much better they are at writing than you. You may be disheartened and want to give up writing forever. But then you realize, they want to make you look as good as possible. If your novel goes on to become the next billion dollar YA franchise all that glory goes to you and no one remember's the editor. They get nothing out of making you feel like giving up.
Done?
You have done all the magic you know, and were happy with it. Then you got a new list of fixes from editors. You have done all the new magic they have taught you and are happy with it. What do you do? That depends on your goals. You may be a perfectionist and keep making minor tweaks for the rest of eternity. You may self publish or submit to an agent or publisher. You may just throw the whole project away.
There will surely still be mistakes. People may still hate it. But now you've pushed your skill to its limit and grown as an artist. It's taken you 10 times longer than you hoped, and in the mean time, all your competition that doesn't bother to edit has released 3 books. What is the point of it all?
Exactly.
