Unless you are an insanely talented writer, chances are you will need to do a lot of editing during your writing career. Personally, editing is my favourite part of writing. I just love perfecting drafts, whether they are my own or someone else’s.

In my writing classes, we have workshops where everyone brings in their drafts and we are then arranged into groups where we spend up to three hours reading and critiquing each other’s work. It’s so important to have other people look over your work because not only will they catch what you might not, but their advice can further enhance your writing. For example, I often struggle with imagery, but when other people edit my work, they suggest how I can improve upon it.

If you take away one thing from this article it should be to never give a draft that you have not edited yourself yet, to other people. You will always get better advice on the writing that you have personally edited first. I never bring my very first draft to workshops, because I know the value of unique perspectives on my work. I don’t want those distinctive perspectives to get lost in the sea of problems that I am capable of fixing myself.

Deciding what advice to listen to and what advice to disregard is another important aspect of editing. Sometimes stories don’t function because there is a flaw in the way they are written, but sometimes stories don’t function in the minds of certain readers because they are inattentive or lack the life experience that would help them relate to the story. A good indication of whether the writing or the reader is the problem is to ask yourself: is this something that everyone is pointing out or is it just one person?

That being said, even if just one person tells you something, it doesn’t mean that their advice is invaluable. You just need to think carefully about why they might be saying that and feel free to ask other readers if they can see the problem too, now that it has been brought to their attention. Even if the critique ends up being one that you disregard, respecting the person who made the critique and analyzing your piece accordingly is still crucial. After all, you need multiple opinions to understand how your piece works for different audiences. And just because someone offers one poor critique, doesn’t mean that all of their critiques are invalid.

Other people are vital in the editing process, and you are too. You are the author and ultimately you need to be proud of what you have written. A final piece of advice that I will leave you with is to leave as much space as time allows between when you finish your final draft and when you start editing. The more separated you are from the time that you wrote your rough draft, the more objective you will be as you edit it.

If you are not as fond of editing as I am, remember that each and every edit brings you closer to your final piece.

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