What does an editor do? How is that different from a writer?
Imagine an editor as a sift, or a machine, that takes in content by various writers/creators and processes the work and outputs an edited version or even suggestions to provide back to the writers to further amplify their work before publishing. The editor’s job is crucial as they hold the skills and knowledge to observe various tastes and styles in an unbiased perspective while perfecting such pieces that would garner fans and please or satisfy readers. A writer has their own niche in which they utilize their unique creativity to form content as per a larger prompt given by head editors, whereas editors hold a wider knowledge on marketing, writing, and communication to uplift the company’s or personal platform. The job of an editor is slightly unknown amongst outsiders where most people believe editors write the pieces themselves or that they don’t exist at all, when this is rather untrue.
Unfortunately or fortunately, the world has turned more independent due to the easy accessibility of online platforms which leads to a huge growth of creators who work, edit, and publish on their own. This is true for my own website KekuStyle, as I work through every step of my process up till publishing. Now this can be a challenge, as I am naturally biased to my own work, so it takes a certain level of awareness and healthy amounts of self-criticism to be able to filter out hasty work into a piece worth reading for my audience. The steps I take to reach a high-functioning system within my publishing is to first initiate a strict theme to keep work consistent. Likewise the advice of fellow peers helps in taking constructive criticism to broaden my platform and understand how different minds may perceive my work. Normally I find that despite the clearness of my own writing to myself, outsiders tend to struggle slightly to understand my work to the same extent. When presenting work like mine which tends to be subjective on different levels, I can never create content that is equally understood by every audience, but by noticing my specific target audience struggling to understand and relate to my pieces, I keep track of what works and what doesn’t to fix newer pieces for future references. Working on your own is a process of failing and learning from those mistakes, as you aren’t given a credible editor to perfect your work.
