Self editing is the path to the dark side. Self editing leads to self delusion, self delusion leads to missed mistakes, missed mistakes lead to bad reviews. Bad reviews are the tools of the dark side.  – Eric T. Benoit

I don’t really believe that self-editing leads to the dark side, although it would behoove me to promote that belief (and I don’t even like the word “behoove”) because if everyone were an accomplished self-editor, there would be no market for editors. Self-editing can be thrilling… catching that pesky misplaced modifier you didn’t see on the first three reads, finally finding the shape of your conclusion after despairing of ever being able to end your piece. But once we’ve read our writing too many times, we go blind. Our writing mind skips over what it has seen too many times. That’s why we still need editors––even those of us who pride ourselves on magnificent self-editing skills.