This is a good time to top off copyeditor energy tanks. The burst of creative energy and exposure from National Grammar Day (have you entered the AnaGrammar or haiku contests yet?) is coinciding with a little editing love online.

Over on Ragan.com, Lindsay Bell, a content director, explains “Why Every Writer Needs an Editor” (blame evolution), giving a few of the reasons “editors rock.” One of my favorites: “An editor's goal is to protect the writer.”

Perhaps even more gratifying, professional writer Barbara O’Neal—a “clean, clear, concise” writer—gets “The Value of Editors” and discusses it on the Writer Unboxed blog. A key point:

Every writer has blind spots and points of brilliance. When you find an editor who can help you minimize the first and polish the second, you’re going to write a book that is about 20 times the book you could produce on your own.

In “Polishing Your Prose,” on The Chronicle of Higher Education website, professors Steven M. Cahn and Victor L. Cahn provided a short but detailed example of one kind of prose-polishing writers should try to do. It’s the kind of line editing that professional editors spend their days doing: “pruning excess verbiage, sharpening word choice, and clarifying exactly where [the writing is] headed.”

Be encouraged and energized, editors—appreciation and understanding is out there!