We all need editors

✍🏼

Last week I fiddled with paragraph after paragraph trying to find the flow of my piece. Only after a dozen reads through did I realize that the only section I had thought was any good was actually the one throwing everything else off.

If someone else had read my first draft, I’m sure they could have pointed this out a whole lot faster than my trial and error, but this is a one man band, and try as I might to turn in clean copy, there are going to be mistakes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love having creative control, but there are limits to what I can do by myself, and this would be a different but ultimately better product with more input. That goes for everything, though, doesn’t it?

It’s hard to hear feedback, especially on a beloved project, but admitting that we’re not as proficient as we’d like to be does not signal weakness, and going the rest of the way with some help does not make the output any less valuable. If done right, it should make it better.

The problem is we’re so used to taking on all these things by ourselves. Trying to solve a problem in our own head before we burden those around us. Trying to fit the last piece of the puzzle in so we can be recognized for the whole picture. As individuals, we’re often either lifted up or left behind.

But even the best solo artists have support teams, mentors, and coaches. Anyone who’s risen the ranks in their field has a laundry list of thanks to give. They all had editors, and they’d be the first to tell you that that’s how they got as far as they did and how they kept going when they didn’t think they would.