Endless Editing

Somebody famous once said, "A writer is only as good as his editor."

Actually, I'm not sure that anybody famous ever actually said that, but if they haven't, then somebody famous should and take credit for the statement of genius.

There is a large truth to this statement. I'm not sure, it could be that I'm simply not a very good writer, but all of my stories typically come back to me with lots of corrections, style pointers, and rewrite assignments. Now don't get me wrong, most of them are superficial, but some, especially the sciencey ones, require a major overhaul.

I, however, choose to believe that this is not because I am a poor writer, but rather because I am a poor editor. I believe I simply have trouble editing my own work, and am not sure I'd do much better with others' work. I've never had an editing class and absolutely hated grammar in high school and college. It's a difficult talent to master, and it is difficult to edit your own work, made doubly hard by the fact I have no practice editing.

That last sentence was probably a run on, and the whole paragraph was probably too long and could be shortened to just a few short, yet quirky, lines. Here, let me give it another stab…

Some may call me a poor writer, but I call myself a poor editor. Poll any writers and they'll tell you editing their own work is difficult. This inherent problem is compounded by the fact I've never been taught editing skills—I hated grammar in school—and thus have trouble editing text, especially my own.

What do you think?