Developmental editing is one of the most important stages of a manuscript’s life. It’s the point at which an author must address any big-picture issues stopping their story from reaching its full potential. To do a good job, you have to look at the manuscript from a distance and understand what makes a story great — from plot to pacing to character development — then pull it apart before putting it back together again.
This is no easy task, which is why most authors opt to work with professional editors who have the relevant skills and years of experience. But with the rise of AI and self-editing tools, the publishing industry has come face-to-face with an age-old sci-fi conundrum: are machines replacing humans?
In this article, I’ll outline five reasons why AI isn’t really a threat to developmental editors (yet), and why we still need that human touch when it comes to crafting powerful stories.
1. Human editors prompt the author
One of the main advantages of hiring a developmental editor is that you get an outsider’s perspective on your text. Professional editors are trained to spot issues that you might be too close to the text to identify — like weak characterization or logical fallacies in the plot. They prompt authors to address these in ways tailored to the story and the author’s voice, often asking questions you wouldn’t have even thought to ask.
Meanwhile, AI editors compare your text with patterns they have detected in other texts and huge sets of training data. They may be able to catch grammar and spelling mistakes or ensure consistency in your writing — which can be helpful during the proofreading stage — but they lack the creative capacity required for great developmental editing, particularly when it comes to balancing the finer details and larger picture of the story.
AI tools also require specific prompts from you, meaning their output depends on your input and understanding of the text. So while AI technology these days can generate solid responses to specific questions, their output will ultimately depend on how good you are at prompting the tool. Again, this can lead to overlooking issues you’ve missed, which a third-party editor would catch. Indeed, the job of an editor is to prompt the author — not the other way around.
2. Human editors understand your voice
Another strength of human editors is that they truly understand human voice and nuance. After all, no one human being speaks or expresses themselves exactly like another, as we all have our own unique idiolects and sociolects.
The advice of an AI editor will be based on patterns it has detected in its training data, boiled down to a set of predictive responses — so unless you spend significant time and resources training an AI editor on your style and preferences, chances are that it will generate pretty generic editing suggestions, rather than something customized for your writing. And while there are certainly some universal best practices when it comes to storytelling, what makes a story stand out from the rest is the unique voice of the author.
Human editors, on the other hand, take what they have learned from editing other texts and adapt it to fit your genre, style, and voice. Their job is not to correct and align your writing to other, pre-existing patterns or writing rules; their job is to enhance what is already there and make your unique voice stand out even more.
They are also better equipped to deal with purposeful departures from linguistic norms, such as colloquialisms or vernacular dialogue. They’ll aim to understand the story that you’re trying to tell and suggest ways to best tell it, based both on what they’re reading on the page and on the conversations you will have together.
3. Human editors are collaborative
Speaking of conversation, the developmental editing phase is a highly collaborative process which benefits from bouncing ideas back and forth. The editor is not there to stipulate and prescribe actions that the author must follow; they are there to make suggestions and prompt you to look at your text from a different point of view.
The best developmental editors are therefore great communicators with excellent people skills. They approach editing as not a two-way, but three-way conversation amongst themselves, the author, and the text. They also know how to approach sensitive topics in a text with care, as well as how to deliver feedback in a helpful and professional manner.
And besides being good at their craft, editors sometimes need to become the writer’s cheerleader, encouraging them during tough parts of the editing process and offering a safe space to explore new ideas. They know when to push the author and when to ease up. This dynamic approach to editing yields the best results and stands the highest chances of creating something that surprises and delights readers.
Sure, you can try to have a “conversation” with AI by prompting it to reply positively. But at the end of the day, it’s unlikely to give you anything particularly surprising, innovative, or encouraging — certainly not in the same way as a human editor.
4. Human editors ultimately save you time
Another simple truth here is that AI tools are just not very reliable, at least not when it comes to creative elements. Particularly when working with abstract or vague prompt instructions, AI can introduce errors and even “hallucinate” in a given text.
So even if AI does help you clean up your writing and catch some obvious issues, you’ll still need to review those edits (and potentially make some of your own) to guarantee your work is readable and makes sense. Then at the end of that process, you may still need to hire a human editor before bringing your book to market. So why not cut out the AI middleman and go straight to the pros?
A qualified editor will know what to look for and how to address developmental editing issues in a first pass. While it may take them a bit longer to send you their edits, they will do a thorough and complete job, ensuring you don’t have to spend more time on checks and corrections.
5. Human editors understand the human experience
If we play devil’s advocate for a second, it’s true that human editors also base much of their advice on other texts and their wider understanding of storytelling. Since the time of Homer, there have been recurring patterns, storytelling structures, and techniques that authors can apply to elevate their writing.
But while AI tools are trained on incomprehensibly large data sets, it still doesn’t compare to the rich, specialized experience that an editor brings to table. Not only do editors know what makes great literature great and how to collaborate effectively with authors, but they are also able to draw from their personal experiences when they edit.
In everything from the pain of first heartbreak to the simple joy of eating a croissant fresh out of the oven, editors are able to take big and small moments in life and help authors transfer those feelings to the page. They understand complex social issues, relationships, and emotions that AI tools do not. Because writing a book is first and foremost about evoking feelings — and as of today, machines cannot experience such things.
So while AI editing tools may be helpful for detecting errors in spelling and grammar — and may even help spark your creativity during the brainstorming phase — they also have some serious limitations when it comes to understanding the human experience that forms the basis of most stories. That alone is a good enough reason to keep working with human book editors.
Linnea Gradin is a writer for Reedsy, where you can find advice about everything writing- and publishing-related — from how to self-publish your book to how to design a book cover. When Linnea is not reading, she can be found dribbling on the football pitch, dabbling in foreign languages, or exploring the local cuisine of whatever country she happens to be in at the time.
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