Editors have a huge task at hand of improving upon what an author has written without changing the meaning. It is believed that editors are the final step before the publication of the authors work be it a novel, or an article or any little piece of literature. It is also said that editors clean up the mess left after the author is finished and they are the ones who direct them what to do next. That’s the case most often than not. Manuscripts from authors come with hundreds of typos and small alterations of words which will add more meaning to what the author wants to say. It is just the enhancement of the authors written text. No matter how good the plot and the characters of a novel are, with multiple typos and without depth, it is going to push every one away from it.
The first thing that an editor needs to understand from the manuscript is the purpose of it. Sometimes the author adds a few elements in the story and forgets about it, these are spotted by the editor and the story is streamlined further. Another important aspect of being an editor is organizing the thought of the author. The authors are treasure chests filled with ideas, when in flow, they spit out whatever comes to their mind in any possible manner. This is made into presentable form by the author. The story needs to be broken into smaller and easily understandable parts. The editor looks for roughed up or jumbled ideas that may be mixed along with the main story, these just divert the attention of the reader to useless stuff hence is carefully removed without altering the main story. And in the end the simplest and the most important thing, the correction of typos needs to be carefully checked for.