The process is more about perspective than perfection.
My office neighbor here at corporate headquarters isn't as much a fan of epic movie soundtracks as I am.
I have to admit, it does get tempting after a morning staring at a screen to relieve some stress and test the limits of the old Hi-Fi.
But whenever I'm inclined to ratchet the volume on Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia overture to 11, it's time to find my wireless headphones.
You see, I don't want to rattle my work neighbor's walls when she's facilitating a Zoom meeting with clients from around Minnesota who depend on her sage advice. That just wouldn't be polite, and her voice really can't compete with my preamp's capabilities.
In return for my immeasurable courtesy, my work neighbor will occasionally offer her editorial services to me free of charge. Sometimes I don't even have to beg her.
"We will teach them, Sherif Ali, to fight a modern mechanized army." —T. E. Lawrence
That is when I find out that even I, your humble editor, periodically make (gasp!) mistakes.
Yes, just as T. E. Lawrence needed the unique perspective of Sherif Ali to see the error of his ways, and vice versa, editors need other editors.
"It takes more than a compass, Englishman." —Sherif Ali
I know, I know. It's hard to believe. Finding a mistake in my otherwise pristine blog post is like playing Where's Waldo while searching for the holy grail with a microscopic needle in a haystack during a massive sandstorm, blindfolded and greased.
Sometimes my office neighbor / editor suggests I've made an error in my own editorial judgment (double gasp!) , or displayed a lack of tact (triple gasp!), or perhaps committed the cardinal sin of (quadruple, quintuple gasp!) tone-deaf writing.
Can we still say "tone deaf" in 2023? Is that allowed?
That is when I'm reminded of the higher purpose of editing: providing a skilled second set of eyes with a different perspective from your own.
As the esteemed editing virtuoso Gerald Howard once wrote: "It is the rare writer who can write a book in splendid isolation and autonomy."
The same goes for editors; we cannot edit in a vacuum. We occasionally need to exit our bubbles and check the latest tastes and attitudes. Sometimes decades of firmly held editing beliefs have been successfully challenged since we last "touched grass" among the reading folk.
For instance, I recently found out you can't go tossing around the word [redacted] willy-nilly in 2023. Imagine my embarrassment and damage to my professional reputation had [redacted] gone out under my name.
The thing I most appreciate about my work neighbor is that hallmark of any good editor: she does not hold back her opinion. Like that time I "sneezed commas all over my editorial assessment like a complete idiot" (sextuple gasp!), to quote her verbatim.
What? Isn't "sextuple" OK?
So if you are looking for a skilled second set of eyes with a different perspective from your own to serve as your editor, I happen to know one.
And unlike my office neighbor, you'll never have to beg him.