Writing your own speeches, dissertations, book manuscripts, screenplays, or even newsletter articles can be a challenge in and of itself. Selecting the best words, using the appropriate tone, and ensuring that the grammar and style are up to par can certainly take their toll on you, leaving you both relieved to have conquered the writing, but also disheartened at the fact that the process isn’t quite finished.
Congratulations, you’ve survived all of that! You’ve burned the midnight oil, sacrificed a night out with friends, or forfeited your lunch time, all to ensure that you meet your ever-approaching deadline. The one that’s been looming over your head for the past few hours, days, or even months. You’ve covered all of the basics, of that you’re sure. You’ve aligned your work’s presentation with the company’s brand, your own voice, or the preferences of your customary audience. So, now it’s time for the next step.
Editing.
Now, how exactly do you tackle this? You realize that you’re faced with a few different approaches. Firstly, you can delegate the editing to someone else—someone in-house, a freelancer, an outside company, a friend whom you bribe with the promise of their favorite doughnuts, or even your co-worker in the cubicle adjacent to the breakroom, the one with the horrendous lighting that bathes everyone and everything in a zombie-like-undead glow.
Going this route would free up some of your time and give your eyes and brain a much-need break. Just the thought of being able to step away from your work and leave the polishing to someone else is already bringing a smile to your face.
Also, it would allow someone else who is less familiar with the writing to consider it with fresh eyes, which likely will lead to a better chance of them catching any mistakes that could easily be overlooked by you, as the author, because your brain would automatically make those adjustments as you’re reading, even though the mistakes still remain in the document.
By far, this is one of the greatest benefits of having someone else edit your work, and it’s likely the main reason why, more often than not, professionals in the world of publishing encourage writers to have someone other than themselves edit their work.
However, going this route would require you to provide some extra communication with the person you delegate this task to, as you would be the person they go to when they have questions about the potential edits and when they are unsure of how you, as the author, might wish to proceed in certain situations.
More and more this is sounding like the right move to make. But being the thorough and fully professional person that you are, you know that going with your first option without considering the rest is probably not in your best interest. So you keep marching on.
Secondly, you contemplate hunkering down and whipping out the edits yourself. After all, you are the one who is the most familiar with your writing and all of the ideas and concepts that you intend to convey. Self-editing, though it does not quite free up your time the way that delegating the editing to someone else would, might still be a decently-speedy option due to your familiarity with the work and inside knowledge of the work’s intended focus.
Additionally, you wouldn’t need to communicate with someone else regarding any suggested changes, negotiating preferences and peculiarities. This sounds pretty good, too. But thoroughness isn’t your middle name for no reason. So you carry on.
Finally, you consider doing a combination of the two—parceling out some of the editing duties to someone else while tackling some of them yourself. On the one hand, you’d free up some time by placing some of the editing duties on someone else’s plate. But then again, you might lose some time because you’d still need to communicate your final decisions about their work to them, as well as take the time needed to combine their work with yours in order to form a cohesive product. Suddenly this one doesn’t sound so convenient or efficient, and it definitely doesn’t seem effort-friendly.
So what do you do?
Each option carries its own pros and cons, and it’s ultimately up to you to determine what is what for you. After all, a pro for someone else might not be a pro for you, and the same applies to the cons. Only you can make the choice that is best for you, and now, hopefully, you’re better equipped to make that choice. Be blessed. #sanguinemango
Sanguine Mango 