A Peek Inside the Mind of a Professional Editor

When you’re able to think like an editor, that’s the surest way to success whether you’re self-publishing or signing with a traditional publisher. Of course, you want to make sure your grammar is as perfect as possible, but the truth is you can hire a proofreader for that. Content and voice are far more important. The fact is that your piece won’t get read if it’s not engaging.

Remember, editors receive thousands of manuscripts and readers have millions of writers competing for their attention. This really put everything into perspective for me. I once took a week long workshop called “The First 3 Pages,” with the editor of a magazine a really respected. We see this in the way Amazon sells books. If you can grab someone's attention in the first paragraph, they'll read a sample, and if they like the first three pages, you've got your foot in the door.

When someone gives me something to read, I immediately scan the document for the strongest writing, where the author is really distinguishing her voice and I move that to the top. Then I make adjustments from there. Here's what I look for:

1.) Bold, unique statements. This catches attention.

2.) Clarity. Why are we reading? In fiction, where and when is essential too.

3.) Fear and Desire. What grips the reader's emotions?

I've collected some of my all-time favorite first paragraphs in various genres. You'll see how these rules apply.

Fiction: Brownies by ZZ Packer.

By our second day at Camp Crescendo, the girls in my Brownie troop had decided to kick the asses of each and every girl in Brownie Troop 909.

Fiction: Dayward by ZZ Packer.

Early yet, the morning clouds the color of a silver fox, and Lazarus was running. His sister, Mary Celeste, hadn't heard the dogs chasing after them-- nor could hear them, being deaf--and, depite his signing to her what the planwas and for to keep up the best she could, she'd nevertheless been treed.

Memoir: Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert.

I wish Giovanni would kiss me. Oh, but there are so many reasons why this would be a terrible idea. To begin with, Giovanni is ten years younger than I am, and, like most Italian guys in their twenties, he still lives with his mother. These facts alone make him an unlikely romantic partner for me, given that I am a professional American woman in my mid-thirties, who has just come through a failed marriage and a devastating, interminable divorce, followed immediately by a passionate love affair that ended in sickening heartbreak.

Self-Help: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

IN EVERY chapter of this book, mention has been made of the moneymaking secret which has made fortunes for more than five hundred exceedingly wealthy men whom I have carefully analyzed over a long period of years. The secret was brought to my attention by Andrew Carnegie, more than a quarter of a century ago.

The simplest way to break it down is that a professional editor always has their mind on the reader, how can we make this a better experience for them. The inner critic is focused on the writer, it’s very worried and self-conscious. Developing your editing skills can actually be a way to fend off that inner critic because it takes your attention off of yourself and places it on the communication taking place.