Why Great Writers Work with Editors: Developmental Editing and the Myth of the Solitary Genius

Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva, site of the 1816 literary gathering that inspired Frankenstein

It’s time to normalize deep editing, also known as developmental editing or structural editing. Experienced authors know how essential an editor’s insights can be, but newer writers sometimes hesitate to seek help. They might assume that hiring a developmental editor or book coach signals a lack of talent rather than a commitment to craft.

Indeed, the Romantic-era myth of the solitary genius lives on—the writer toiling alone in an attic, producing brilliance through isolated imagination. But history tells a different story: collaboration helped shape many of the world’s most celebrated books.

Consider Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein—one of the most enduring literary works of the Romantic period. Far from a solitary act of genius, it began in 1816 when Shelley joined Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Byron’s physician, John William Polidori, at a villa on Lake Geneva. Stormy weather kept the group indoors, where they challenged one another to write ghost stories.

Out of that creative exchange came Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819)—a short story that inspired Bram Stoker’s Dracula  and launched the modern vampire genre. Similarly encouraged by feedback from her companions, Mary Shelley expanded her own short story into Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus (1818), the groundbreaking novel that continues to shape literature and film today.

Famous Writer-Editor Partnerships

Literary history is filled with collaborations between writers and editors whose guidance helped refine masterpieces:

• James Joyce & Harriet Shaw Weaver: Weaver served as Joyce’s editor, publisher, and financial backer. She corresponded with him almost daily during the writing of Ulysses, commenting on drafts, correcting proofs, and helping him overcome creative obstacles—what we might today call book coaching.

• T. S. Eliot & Ezra Pound: Pound famously cut and restructured The Waste Land (1922), removing whole sections and clarifying its architecture. Eliot dedicated the poem to Pound as “il miglior fabbro”: “the better craftsman.”

• Mary McCarthy & Katharine S. White: As the novelist and memoirist McCarthy recalled of her longtime editor: “We would meet for lunch at the Algonquin…and then go up to her office and work for the rest of the afternoon. The work was always finished in a single sitting.”

• Toni Morrison & her authors: Before becoming a Nobel laureate, Morrison edited for Random House, shaping books by Toni Cade Bambara, Gayl Jones, Angela Davis, Huey P. Newton, and Muhammad Ali. Her editorial legacy elevated some of the most important voices in Black literature and activism.

These partnerships remind us that even masterful writers rely on collaborators who help them see what’s already there. Far from a sign of weakness, collaboration is a cornerstone of artistry.

What Contemporary Writers Can Keep in Mind

Things have shifted in traditional publishing since the mid-twentieth-century heyday of editors like Maxwell Perkins or Robert Giroux, who helped Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Virginia Woolf rise to fame. Editors who once had the time and resources to work intensively with a small roster of writers were salaried employees at publishing houses that released far fewer titles each year. Today’s editors manage larger lists and tighter production schedules, leaving less space for iterative collaboration.

As a result, the kind of editorial care that once happened inside a publishing house often happens before acquisition now. Many authors turn to freelance developmental editors and book coaches to strengthen structure, argument, and voice early on.

The myth of the solitary genius is exactly that—a myth. Great books have emerged from fruitful, nurturing collaborations between writers and editors. But when and where that collaboration happens varies with each writer.

Some writers have the good fortune of encountering a dedicated in-house editor with the time and resources to help them develop and enhance their work after acceptance. Other writers take their fate in their own hands, seeking professional editorial support earlier in the process—often a key step to ensuring their work gains publication acceptance in the first place.

Collaboration has always been part of the creative process. If you’re curious about what an editorial partnership might look like for your own project, I’d be glad to share how developmental editing works in practice. You can learn more about my editorial services here or download my free guide, 7 Steps to Your Breakthrough Draft—a resource designed to help you step outside your draft and see it with fresh, editorial eyes.

Header image: Villa Diodati, Lake Geneva (19th-century engraving, artist unknown). Public domain via Wikimedia Commons.