Editing Services The Reason A writer’s job used to be a little easier than it is today, mechanically speaking.  In the past, the biggest challenges a writer faced had to do with the emotional aspects of artistic creation: to write that which was faithful to the artist’s vision, was honest and was, hopefully, marketable.  Any change in mechanics—those soldiers of the hum drum: structure, grammar and usage—were entrusted to the editor of whichever publication had purchased the writer’s work. Sadly, those days have gone the way of the 80’s hair bands.  Editors and agents are flooded with manuscripts every day.  The ones that are noticed are the ones that have already been polished and perfected.  The bottom line is that if two manuscripts of equal artistic merit are submitted to the same publishing professional, the one with the least amount of typos will win. Every writer knows that it’s difficult enough to pull a skein of ideas from the gut and weave the sticky threads into a creative web of thoughts and ideas (and possibly dialog).  Being expected to then whip out a degree in English and beat upon one’s delicate, still ink-wet sentences with a grammar hammer is tantamount to torture.  A painter paints, then gives the painting to a framer to be framed.  It should be no different for a writer.  If you’ve created a piece of writing that you’re proud of and which you’d like to see brought to its highest shine but you’re not quite sure when to use a semi-colon (and you have no idea what an em dash is), then you might consider enlisting the help of a freelance editor. Continued: MYTHS about freelance editors