Years ago I enjoyed acting in plays and taking drama classes. One of our exercises was to pantomime various activities. We would get docked points for employing the dreaded revolving door handle. Try for just a moment pantomiming walking out a door. You turn the handle, walk out and then shut the door behind you. Did you let go of the inside handle and then grab the outside handle to shut the door? It’s very common to just hold on to the handle, and it magically swivels to become the outside handle when you pull it closed. It’s something you wouldn’t often think about unless you had a drama couch “gently” reminding you that door handles don’t swivel.

This is the same concept behind writers having editors. It is easy for a writer to get caught up in the story or the drama of the moment and forget to do things – like move the protagonist from the bedroom where you left him to the back yard where he performs some heroic act. Or what about the time the family sits down to dinner only to find out, two pages later, that they decide it’s time to start preparing dinner. It’s like the revolving handle – it doesn’t actually work in real life. A second set of eyes is always a good idea – in this case a content editor. The trick is learning to take their advice.

It seems like, writer or not, we can all use an editor from time to time. Again, the trick is learning to take their advice!