Rich Language looks at The Editing Process

Rich Language

The Editing Process

Originally posted September 20, 2004 by Peter Cooper

(Jump straight to the editing tips, if you like.)

Editing is the process of taking a piece of text and making it shine. Being an editor is like being an ice sculptor who starts with a big ugly chunk of ice and whittles it down to what he wants the public to see. You remove the fluffy words, pointless similes, blank comparisons, and other minutiae, and, supposedly, are left with gold.

A good editor can take any piece of writing, and compress it to at least two thirds of its original size without losing any meaning. As I look at the sentences I've just written here, I've seen several ways I could edit it down. Let's me take my pen and cross out the fluff right now:

Editing is the process of taking a piece of text and making it shine. Being an editor is like being an ice sculptor who starts with a big ugly chunk of ice and whittles it down to what he wants the public to see. You remove the fluffy words, pointless similes, blank comparisons, and other minutiae, and, supposedly, are left with gold.

This is only the first step. I've crossed out redundant words, such as the duplication of 'being' in the second sentence, to make sentences clearer and more active. A few adjectives and conjunctions have also taken a dive. Let's rearrange the words, replace a few with snappier alternatives, and turn it into something more pleasant:

Editing is the process of making text shine. An editor is a word sculptor, starting with a block of text and chiseling down to what he wants the public to see. Omit needless words, similes, and other minutiae, to be left with verbal gold.

It's not Shakespeare, but it's significantly shorter, easier to read, and friendlier on the brain.

My editing tips and suggestions


  • Try the above process with your own writing right now. I bet you can cross out at least ten words from a paragraph picked at random and rewrite it to be more engaging. If you have any great editing moments, post the before and afters in the comments section below for us all to see!

  • If in doubt, try it with someone else's writing. I know that when you're starting out, it can be tough to tear your own writing to shreds. If so, use someone else's writing. Use mine! Use Dean Koontz's! Just do it.

  • If a word ends in "ly", try and edit it out. There are good ways around using dull "ly" adjectives.

  • Shut the mouth! When you're editing, you're often changing text written in a "vocal" way into text that has to be ideal to read. So don't speak out loud; does it read tight?

  • Get emotional. Some writers meet quotas by padding out with words meaning nothing. Zap these and replace them with emotive words like feel, power, security, strength, hope, or whatever fits the mood of the piece.

  • Be an action hero. As well as being emotional, get action into your piece. You're not omitting words; you're exterminating word. Your company's product isn't the best on the market; your company's product is a competition killer! Of course, don't go over the top.

  • Repetition sometimes works. Repetition might work wonders. It's a powerful habit to edit repetition out of your work. Make sure you justify it when you do. Particularly in sales and marketing copy, repetition can be good. Repetition means you don't revert to pithy pronouns. Repetition builds up a rhythm. Repetition can be hypnotic. Repetition can be a writer's power tool in the right situation.

  • Exterminate the filler. Filler is great for insulating your walls, but it does a bad job at insulating your writing from criticism. When you see of its, and so it, well, sometimes, some of the time, perhaps, quite possibly, or similar phrases, exterminate them!

  • "Quite" is evil. Strike it down!

  • "That" sucks. What is "that"? Tell the reader instead of irritating them to death.

  • Take a paragraph you've written and mentally cross out every third word. Go through each and try to justify its existence. Argue both sides of the case. You'll get a feel for the pressure of editing if you use sentences from a national newspaper, as they're usually tight already.

  • Write like a saint. Read like a cynic. When you write, the words should be flowing with no inner critic beating you down. When you edit, the inner critic should come out to play. Be harsh! It's no secret that many major books and articles are edited down to less than half their original size.

Further reading on editing

« Origin of OK | | Apologies »
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