Editing

There is a difference between critiques and editing (at least in my mind there is). Critiques are more of a general this is what I liked, this is what I didn't like. They cover story points. Editing includes a critique but also gets in depth into word choice, sentence structure, and grammatical tips. It can be very disheartening to ask someone to look over your paper and have it come back with dozens of suggestions. I remember when I started going to a writing group I met a fellow and he asked if I would be willing to look over his story. I had known him for maybe two weeks and I said yes. When I sent him back the first 4,500 words it had 131 comments, which didn't include the text changes I made. He paid me back in kind and I really appreciated the effort he put into it. The trick is to only let people you trust edit your work. Don't spread it to a whole group unless you know and they know exactly what you expect from them. A lot of people have good intentions but you may never see any feedback or they may not give you the feedback you want.

Self-editing is good, but it will not catch all of your mistakes, no matter how good you are. It is impossible to get your story perfect without having at least one other person look at it. Our minds don't always see what is actually there but what we expect to see. Before you ever send anything off to a contest, agent, or publisher, make sure that you have someone else take a look at it, not just a critique but an edit. The worst thing is to have your story sent off with grammatical errors or plot problems. There are agencies and people out there that will edit work for a fee. If you have the money, they can be worth every cent. If you don't have the money and are just sending it off to acquaintances don't rush them too much. A good edit takes time and if you aren't paying them you don't have much of a right to demand them to give valuable time to your charity case. The best case scenario is that your friend will like your story so much they want to finish it as quickly as possible and give you feedback.