I’ve had a very positive morning with my yr5 writing group at Whitchurch Primary School. I was acting as editor with my chosen group, working my way through 15 minute individual sessions – I even put my phone timer on!

Each child is a different stage, has different talents and they all see the world and work in quite different ways.

Two main themes kept recurring: The first was that punctuation does matter. We are writing stories to be read by others. Private diary entries can be written any old how. Stories, that are meant to be read by others need to be clear and readable.

The role of an editor is to be the reader’s champion and pull out of the writer what the reader wants to read. (I know this. My editor, Sarah, is working very hard on me at the moment! When she makes a great suggestion, I feel foolish for having not thought it myself. But in a way I have, I’ve just not made clear my intention. Sarah can see what I mean and wants to make sure the reader gets it too.)

So often, on typed and printed stories, I found myself getting confused by the lack of paragraphs. A new line for a new speaking character, is so helpful in decoding the text.

There is a technical problem with typing on a computer. If you don’t know about indents or extra space after paragraphs, the text can turn into a forbidding block of words that scares the reader. A double carriage return – that means pressing the enter key twice in new money – opens up the story and lets the text, and the reader breathe.

That one small change makes all the missing or incorrectly placed commas and full stops much more obvious.

The second theme was simplicity. In the thinking and planning stages, some of the children had wonderful ideas for lots of characters and scenes. But it is hard work handling a lot of characters. It’s best to pick the best goody and baddy and pitch them against each other. Sidekicks are great fun, but they are also more work and can often get in the way. Learn to handle two characters first, before trying to write the next Harry Potter on one side of A4.

It’s like learning to juggle. Get comfortable juggling two balls before you add another. Only add extra balls once you are comfortable with the new number.

Oh yeah – editing isn’t easy. It takes patience, guile, interest, vision, an ability to walk on eggshells, midwifery and nurturing skills and lots of tea and coffee. Good editors are worth their weight in gold. If you’ve got a good one, hang on to them.