Editing for Creativity: How to Enhance the Writer’s Voice | Isla McKetta, Portent

As an editor, I strive for the goal expressed in the following key sentence from this article. And as a writer, I appreciate editors who strive for this goal:

A good editor can help emphasize the unique aspects of a copywriter’s voice in a way that communicates well to a reader and pleases the client.

McKetta describes three reasonable steps in the editing process:

• Do an initial read-through ...

• Edit for grammar, spelling and punctuation ...

• Perform a thorough edit ....

But then she gets to what I consider the heart of her article--three places where it's easy to accidentally edit out creative solutions: 

Word choice ... Ask yourself what the effect of the word choice is on the sentence. ...

Sentence structure ... Ideally, the writer is using a variety of sentence types to achieve the desired effect. Are they?

Rhetorical devices ... In the hands of a skilled copywriter, they are powerful influencers of tone. Pay attention to areas where your writer is under or overusing any of these elements. ...

Referring to "a matter of trust" between a writer and an editor, McKetta concludes:

You are your copywriter’s partner in creativity. Nothing makes a writer feel more frustrated or lose confidence more quickly than to be arbitrarily rewritten. It’s like falling in love with someone for who they are and then trying to change them. ...

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McKetta's article is featured today, Nov. 15, in my daily online paper, Garbl's Creativity Connections--available at the Creativity tab above and by free email subscription.