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Whether a story is a work of fiction, a memoir, or an academic paper, every writer has a story to tell. The first hurdle for every writer is to commit the words in their mind to the blank page. As Ernest Hemingway once said, “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.”

This, believe it or not, is the easy part.

The process of editing and revising a written work for publication can become quite exhausting for a writer. This is where an editor becomes the writer’s best friend and best resource. A good editor will see the things that a writer often cannot–mistakes in grammar and punctuation, misspellings, formatting issues, plot holes, lack of character development, and more. They can take a well-written story and make it even better.

As an editor, I don’t set out to simply edit a written work. I strive to develop a relationship with the author. I feel that to be a great editor is to know the writer well–what they hope to achieve through their work, how they envision every character and every detail of their story, and the messages they wish to convey to their audience.

Writing can often seem like a solitary journey fraught with frustration, emotional highs and lows, and even the occasional writer’s block. Sometimes, all you need is a friendly guide to lead the way forward.