What editors see that writers often miss

Even if you’ve self-edited your book several times and run it through grammar apps, there’s no guarantee it’ll be free of errors. When the manuscript comes back from the editor, you’ll still see dozens of typos, misspellings or inconsistencies – and you’ll kick yourself for not having caught them.

So why do authors have these blind spots? Can they be minimised? And why do editors have a knack for seeing things that writers often miss?

In this post, I'll look at the limits of the author's perspective, how it can be addressed and why, at the end of the day, you still need an editor.

The limits of the author’s perspective

Ever written something you thought was brilliant, only to find it sounded like crap the following day? Or maybe you checked a blog post three times only to find typos hours after publishing it. Whether you're writing an article, a LinkedIn post or a book, it’s impossible to see your writing objectively. Here’s why:

• You're too familiar with the work. If you’ve read the same lines many times, your brain will autocorrect each time. In other words, you won’t see the errors anymore.

  
  

• You're too emotionally attached to the content. It’s easy to get attached to certain phrases or passages in your writing. They may feel important to you, but they may not be relevant, relatable or accessible to the reader.

  
  

• You're confusing intention with execution. Often, we know what we mean to say in a piece of writing, but we don't actually convey it. For example, if you’re a subject matter expert, you could be bamboozling readers with jargon and acronyms they don't understand. (For more on this, see The curse of knowledge: How to write for readers who aren’t experts.)

  
  

• You're unable to separate writing and editing. When you’re writing, you’re concentrating on creating  – and that's big-picture work. It’s all about ideas, structure and content. As a result, you won’t notice smaller details, like typos and punctuation.

What editors are trained to notice

Professional editors will see errors you don’t for two main reasons: one, they’re seeing the content for the first time (this is a big factor), and two, they’ve been trained to notice things beyond grammar and spelling that can affect the reader's experience. In a non-fiction book, this may include:

• repetition of ideas, words or phrasing

• unbalanced chapters

• weak transitions

• logic errors

• wordiness

• gaps in your argument

• unsupported claims

• lists that don’t follow parallel list structure

• inconsistent tone or spelling

• inconsistent heading case

• inadequate fact-checking

• jargon and clichés

• missing or incorrect punctuation

• non-inclusive or biased language

• defamatory content.

Recently, I proofread an illustrated book that had a handful of logic errors (which, to be honest, are easy to overlook). The book included a list of photographs with the photographer’s name, the date it was taken, the title and the date of publication.

Here's where it gets interesting. When I was checking the list, I found one instance where the photograph was published months before it was taken! Then I found more. There were three or four in total. Perhaps the dates were accidentally inverted. Or the author tapped the wrong numbers. Either way, I flagged them.

Given the volume of photographs listed (i.e. hundreds) and how laborious it is to put these lists together, mistakes creep in. But that’s the beauty of having an editor’s eye. They find errors that familiarity (and even a previous editor) can miss!

How can writers think more like editors?

There are a few things you can do to think more like an editor and minimise errors in your writing:

• Learn more about editing through books or courses.

• Step away from the text for 1–2 weeks.

• Do a few rounds of self-editing.

• Read with a single focus each time (structure, content, style).

• Read out loud or use text-to-speech tools.

• Think like a reader, not a writer.

All these strategies help you identify errors that normally slip through – and get your manuscript in the best shape possible.

Does that mean you no longer need an editor? No. It just means you’ll be giving the editor a cleaner manuscript, making their job faster and less expensive. Plus, your edited pages won’t be as busy (read: overwhelming) and you’ll be able to focus on high-level edits instead of annoying typos.

Can’t AI edit for me?

Sure, AI tools like ChatGPT can review your manuscript – if you provide a detailed prompt (or two, or three). That said, it can’t look at the whole manuscript.

The free version of ChatGPT can only handle inputs of about 3,000 words, while paid versions can handle about 25,000 words. This means you’ll have to enter them separately, which can be laborious and result in inconsistencies.

What’s more, your content may be used to train future models (unless you turn off the ‘improve the model for everyone’ setting, but even then you can’t be sure).

Lastly, AI tools draw from contextual datasets that are often generic, formulaic or even made up. While they can pick up obvious errors, they can’t ensure consistency, identify bias, stay true to your voice, flag hackneyed phrases (instead, use them!) or provide nuanced observations/recommendations that are rooted in human experience.

If you’re curious to see what happened when four editors used AI to do their job, see this article in The Conversation.

Takeaways: What editors see that writers often miss

It’s not unusual to overlook errors in your own writing. I’m guilty of it too! (And it’s why I usually get an editor to check my blog posts). Because of overexposure, emotional attachment, seeing what we meant and the difficulty of separating writing from editing, errors slip through.

It doesn’t make us sloppy or poor writers. It just means we need to take extra steps to identify those errors and correct them. That includes learning more about editing, taking a break from the text, doing a few self-editing rounds, using voice-to-text (or reading aloud) to pick up errors and thinking like a reader.

Does that mean we no longer need an editor? Of course not. They still have their place. But these strategies make the editing process faster, smoother and more affordable in the long run.

Got a manuscript ready for editing? Get in touch through my contact form or request a sample edit.