I agree with you, Edmund!

I so relate to this. Recently read a published novel with an interesting plot but it was technically awful. Head-hopping; repetition of 'favourite' words; sudden endings to chapters. It really needed a decent edit. Such a shame because the ideas and characters were good. My writers' group holds me to a very high standard and I don't think anyone is above criticism.

The only thing about waiting for life to teach me enough for writing has been that my experiences have taken me down different paths than most people. What I have faced in life--a true crime committed against my family--was not acceptable to the Christian world because it took place in the military. (Politically incorrect in the Christian world.) It did would not interest the secular world, though, because I told of my faith and dependence upon God as I fought to save my husband's life.(Too unacceptable in the secular world.) So truth and life experience can only take us so far in the writing world if we tel the truth. But the experience itself gave me tremendous insight into how people feel when they are terrified, when they face stress, and how to trust God through it. I can use that insight in fiction.

Me either!!! They bring distance and a set of less invested eyes to the project. They can see what we can't when we're too close.

I have seen the products of a few bad edits, and my only guess is that people who think they don't need editors have never had the blessing to work with a truly great editor.

Absolutely correct!

Yeah, I don't understand people who think they don't need editors.