Why I Want To Be An Editor

It's a question I was asked a lot growing up, and even several years later I'm still asked this very question: Why editing? I have given the knee-jerk response, "I want to give other writers the same chance to follow their dreams that I've been given. I want to be able to work with them, to push them forward and let their books land on a shelf just as I've been trying to do." But it's an answer that's never satisfied me.

Finally I have figured out why. While I sincerely meant every word of my automated response, it was something I concocted on a dime that I didn't take the time to really think about it. One day while working on my real estate course/s I took a break to watch some YouTube videos on rehabbing homes. It was then a creative flow allowed me to crawl deep into my writer's brain from which I pulled a truly meaningful and insightful answer for why I want to be an editor. And now I would like to share this answer with you:

Let's look at a house whose exterior is sturdy, whose structure is quaint, whose windows and doors are right out of a magazine clipping you've stared at longingly since a child. But inside there is dry rot, the bedrooms aren't big enough, the foundation underneath is cracking, and the whole place is a fire hazard that hasn't been updated since the 1950's. You probably don't want the house as is, yet while the interior needs work, you do love the outside of the house; the yard is a decent size, and it's in a good location. So what do you do? You rehab the interior! You pull out the dry rot. You expand the bedrooms. Lift up and fix the foundation. Redo the wiring so it's no longer a fire hazard. And maybe you even redo the floors and get shiny new appliances for the kitchen. Boom! Now it's a beautiful home you want to live in. A place you want to share with other people.

To me, a book is no different. If the foundation is there, it's a manuscript I can work with no matter what sort of typos, plot holes, or other forms of errors might be there. That's why I want to be an editor—I can look at that manuscript the same way I can look at that house and, rather than negatively reflect on the current state it is in, I can see it's full potential for greatness. I live to see a manuscript reach that great potential.