Why You Need an Editor

Every eye has a natural blind spot; the place where the optic nerve attaches to the retina at the back of the eye.

You might not have noticed this before because the brain compensates for the lack of information, it fills what is missing with what it thinks should be there. So if you were looking at a green field, it assumes that what is obscured by the blind spot is more of the green field.

This is relevant to writers because all of us have a blind spot in our writing. No matter how careful we think we are in our composition, spelling, checking, and rereading, sometimes our brain automatically fills the page with the information that it thinks should be there—but is not. Mistakes like a repeated or missing word, are often unnoticed by writers simply because they already know what the sentence was meant to say. Having composed the thought and selected the words to be typed or written, the brain is already intimate with the intended meaning and structure of the sentence. Consequently, when reading a sentence back to oneself, the brain can overrule the eye and “see” what it wants to be there instead of what is actually there.

The nature of thought is pure and unconcerned with spelling or grammar or presentation, it is in the crafting that mistakes creep in. Have you ever drawn or painted a picture and been unhappy with the result? Or said something and immediately followed it with, “That sounded better in my head!” The seed of thought is formless, free from error and uncorrupted until dragged into being, on the screen or canvas or spoken to the world.

This is where a good editor is invaluable. Bringing not only fresh eyes to the text, but a fresh mind. Aside from errors, ideas that might seem obvious to the writer could be confusing to a potential reader. The reverse is also true, complex thoughts that lack detail or are a leap too far with no bridge of words to help the reader. The more familiar we are with our own words, the more room there is for error. The only window to a writer’s thoughts is made from words, which, if not used carefully, can be a fickle and fragile building material.

To find out how to locate your blind spot go to: How to Find the Blind Spot in Your Eye (webmd.com). Or if you want to find out more about the “blind spots” in your writing, drop me an email and let’s talk about writing or write about talking.