Your Opinion, Please?

Once upon a time, I was a columnist for a business magazine. I was accustomed to doing more of what we might call journalism – reporting on a topic in as unbiased a way as I could, interviewing experts for background information and quotes, and otherwise effacing myself from the story.

My editor was constantly pushing me to make recommendations in my columns. Should people make this choice or that one? Did I advise restraint or throwing caution to the wind? “People want to know your opinion,” she would say.

She was right.

Sharing Your Editorial Judgment

The same is true in developmental editing. Learning how to become a developmental editor means leaning how to share your opinion about what an author should do to revise their work. This is often hard for newer editors! They don’t want to step on anyone’s toes or force their ideas on anyone.

But the client wants your opinion! That’s why they hired you. They don’t want to hear that their story could be a mystery or a romance; they want to know which direction you think they should go. They don’t want to hear that the plot falls apart around Chapter Seven; they want to know what to do about it.

Developing Editorial Judgment

Of course, a random opinion from a random reader isn’t what the client is looking for. They’re looking for expert judgment from a trained, experienced editor. To become that kind of editor, you have to commit to learning the craft.

You don’t have to take a class, although as you can imagine I think that’s a good direction to go. But it does have to be something: reading widely about editing, getting your own work edited, consulting with colleagues about how they work, practicing critiques with friends. By taking these steps, you’ll feel more confident about sharing your opinion not just about what’s going wrong with a particular manuscript, but what they author can do to fix it.