Why all writers should edit and all editors should write

If you’re a good writer, you should edit others. And if you’re an editor, you should write your own pieces.

It’s not just a way to give back. It’s a way to expand your skills and your perspective.

Why writers should edit

If you love writing, do some editing. Work with others who are writing and edit their work.

By helping others to succeed, you’ll leverage your writing skills to produce far more excellent content. But you’ll benefit as well. You will:

• Get exposure to a variety of content styles, because everyone writes differently. You’ll learn from those and add some of those skills to your own. (Because editing requires you to pay closer attention to what you’re reading, it’s a lot better for developing skills than just reading other people’s work.)
• Be forced to ask yourself why some writing works better. If you ask a writer to make a change, you’d better have a reason for that. That will help you be analytical about what writing works and what doesn’t. Your writing will improve when you know, not just what works for you, but why it works.
• Improve your vocabulary. You’ll read new words and learn how you can use them.
• Expand your range. If you write about finance, edit pieces about economics. If you write about technology, edit pieces about marketing. Editing helps you learn more about the world, expanding the range of what you might write in the future.
• Get paid. It’s a lot easier to get paid to edit than to write, simply because there are such a wide collection of writers who need editing.

Why editors should write

If you work as an editor, don’t give up on writing. You won’t just deliver original content into the world. You will:

• Develop empathy for writers. Pay attention to how it feels when others critique your work. Use that knowledge when you edit other people.
• Keep your advice sharp and realistic. Are you asking people to do things in their writing that are impossible or impractical? There’s no better way to be sure than to attempt to write in the way you expect of others.
• Learn to collaborate. Coauthoring and editing go hand-in-hand. Writing part of a piece and editing the rest is a great way to be productive and leverage varied writers’ skills.
• Develop some cred. Writers respect editors who write. They’ll trust you if they can see you’re still an outstanding writer.

Specialize and generalize

It’s really easy to keep doing one thing over and over until you’re great at it. It’s also, ultimately, boring.

Writers who edit and editors who write broaden their skills and keep things interesting for themselves.

For me, nothing is more rewarding than writing and editing; I love both activities. That means I get to spend more of my working time doing things I enjoy. What could be better than that?

How about you. Do you write, edit, or do both, and which do you prefer?