Have you ever written something, read it back, and experienced a delightful blend of pride and fulfillment? Only to have someone else read it and immediately notice a dozen obvious errors that somehow eluded your eagle eyes. Editing our own work can sometimes feel like trying to tickle ourselves—it just doesn’t work. It’s not because we’re bad writers, but because we’re simply too close to our own creations.
Seth Godin highlights this point in a recent blog post, “Other People’s Problems,” which resonates deeply with the struggles writers face when self-editing. Godin says “It’s surprisingly easy to …find solutions to our friend’s problems. Much easier than it is to do it for ourselves.” This idea clearly extends into the realm of writing and editing.
It’s a trap.
Why is editing our own work so hard? For starters, our brains are helping us out. When we re-read our own work, our brain often shows us what we intended to write rather than what’s actually on the page. We skip over missing words, overlook typos, and gloss over awkward phrases, all because our brain is filling in the gaps with our intentions. We “see” it and “feel” it on the page because we know what we are trying to say.
There’s also a strong element of bias—yes, bias towards our own beautiful, carefully crafted sentences. We fall in love with our turns of phrase, our clever metaphors, and our intricate plot twists. As Godin puts it, we are “unaware of the real and imaginary boundaries we’ve set for ourselves.” So, it’s a trap, which prevents us from making substantial forward progress. An editor or book coach or beta reader, even, won’t have those same constraints and therefore can see the missing information easily.
Godin also mentions resistance. There’s a natural resistance to critically dissecting our work because, frankly, it can feel like dissecting a part of ourselves. Who wants to admit that their brilliant idea has flaws or that their execution isn’t as flawless as envisioned? It’s easier, Godin says, “to simply stay where we are, marinating in our stuck.”
A shift in perspective.
So, what can we do about it? Godin suggests when we care enough to solve our own problem, we’ll loosen the unyielding constraints and embrace the new challenges to come. A shift in perspective is crucial, and the same applies to editing. One approach is to attempt to fool our brain by making it believe that the work is someone else’s. Change the font, alter the color of the text, or print it out instead of reading it on a screen. I’ll take my printed work and a red pen to a diner and work while I’m eating my tuna melt. It’s possible these techniques won’t yield results you desire. Writing is a big deal that our brains can’t ignore and just pretending it’s someone else’s work won’t always fool your grey matter.
Another strategy is to put the work away for a while. Time can be a wonderful editor. In my experience, a week or two is not enough. The time gap should be more substantial – 3 months? A year? – to make a difference.
An editor can see what you can’t.
If you don’t have three months, perhaps try a professional editor or a book coach. Just as Godin advocates for external perspectives to solve problems, a good editor, whether developmental or copy, can see what we can’t. They’re not burdened by our biases or blinded by our love for a particular sentence. They just see what’s on the page – as a reader will someday.
Editing our own work is tough. We have to be critical and ruthless when it comes to our creative masterpieces. But with the right strategies, we can totally get past our natural resistances and biases, just like when we check out someone else’s work. When you attempt to edit your own work next time, pretend it’s someone else’s story. You might just open your eagle eyes to what you’re missing.
Nancy is a developmental editor working with writers of fiction and narrative memoir.