Have you ever had an eyelash or a bit of faerie dust waft into your eye?  I am sure you know the feeling. You cannot always even see the eyelash, but it irritates all the same.  You try to ignore it, but it feels wrong.  You try to brush it away, but you don’t know where to brush.  Relief comes only when you trust someone to look into your eye and, perhaps with the soft tip of a swab, gently brush away the lash. It requires you to trust someone enough to touch your eye.

Cleaning up writing is much the same as the eyelash problem. You know something in your story is not quite right. You know it needs help, but you can’t see where.  You need to ask someone to look deeply into your work and help to spirit away the untidy bits, perhaps even really flush it out.

Trusting someone to look at your work is difficult because stories can be personal and private, but trust is absolutely necessary.  At times, you can no more see your own work than you can see your own eye.

Find a trustworthy editor to read your stories.  Listen to their suggestions. Your writing will get the help it needs.

—Joble

(A note from Zobelia:  If you do not know how to choose a trustworthy editor, be sure to read this tip Edit-Like-Joble.)