EDITING FAQs: How Do You Work?

Very, very carefully

As a present or potential client, naturally you’re more interested in WHAT I can do for you than in HOW I do it. But if you’re curious about the process, read on.

Why are those pages taped to the wall?

This is one of my professional secrets: laying out a complex business report like this helps me to assess the flow of the piece, and decide how best to reorganize it. The visual layout clarifies the structure, and allows me to make the changes needed to improve the story’s shape.

Getting rid of the deadwood

Tightness. Clarity. Reader-friendliness. And if at all possible, even a dash of style.

As a discriminating reader, those are the qualities I appreciate in written material. That’s why I always make sure that my clients’ copy ends up with those qualities.

One effect of this is to make me ruthless about chopping. I always ask: “Do these words genuinely contribute to the sentence, or are they just filler?”

If I decide that a word or phrase isn’t pulling its weight, out it goes. This makes for much stronger, leaner, more effective writing.

Thanks to this tightening and smoothing process, I can nearly always cut word count – with no loss of actual content. This is a big help to writers who are bursting with ideas, but pressed for space. A good edit gives them more room to express themselves.

Think of word count as like packing your suitcase for a vacation. If you take out everything you don’t really need and then fold the rest efficiently, you can squeeze in much more fun stuff. (Goodbye, ten pairs of socks; hellooo, duty-free booze.)

On-screen or on-page?

When you want me to correct your text, there are two basic ways to do it: electronic and paper. The choice is entirely yours – a good editor can handle either, and the deciding factor is what you feel most comfortable with.

Editors still do work with red or blue pens on paper, sending our marked-up copies back to you for approval. Today, though, onscreen editing is the more popular option: it’s faster, and therefore cheaper. Most word-processing programs allow your editor to “track changes” for you to review and approve.

Onscreen editing is also more accurate: a tricky rewording problem isn’t constrained by how many versions can be scribbled onto a page before the result becomes illegible. Your editor can try various solutions, and choose the best. And when the text comes back to you, it’s certified clean and ready to go – without any further work required from you.

However, some clients still prefer to receive their edits the old-fashioned way. This is usually because they’re concerned about keeping changes under strict control (and possibly also because they distrust computer technology).

The disadvantage of this approach is that somebody must then input the corrections; and that “somebody” is usually either a clerical worker, who may not understand all the changes or get them right – or else the person in charge of the project, who must abandon more important work for the task.

So trust technology. It can save you a lot of time and money.

Writing and editing philosophy

I have an intense emotional relationship with words, and a lifelong respect for them as versatile and powerful tools. I’m driven to use them well myself, and I also want to see them used well by others. Writing is all about sharing, true – yet it’s also about craftsmanship. In my experience, the one doesn’t happen without the other.

If writing forges relationships between kindred spirits, think of your editor as the “message therapist” who helps to facilitate that wonderful meeting of minds.