To Write:  Two Editing Techniques
K. Wordbird Bate   The Writer's Life Coach
 
     I've asked you to learn to hush the critical Editing voice as you write, and that is an important skill to practice. However, there is a time to invite your Editor to pull up a chair in your head and take a look at your writing. 
 
     Say you've created those early drafts. You've done some Looping to narrow your topic, and now you have something that looks like an article or perhaps a letter to the Editor. Yet it has one or more of these challenges:
 
1. It's too long overall or exceeds the required word limit.
2. It rambles.
3. It contains a lot of errors.
4. It covers more than a single topic.
5. When you read it, you feel bored or lost.
 
     All five of those indicate a need to Edit. How do you get started though? Try these two basic techniques:
 
1. Most sentences longer than 20 words are too long. This is a sentence of about twenty words or perhaps it is more but it seems about twenty or so. Read that sentence out loud. You see how you lose your breath? If it's awkward to read out loud,  it will be awkward, or confusing, to read. To edit an over-long sentence, you can eliminate words. You can break the sentence up into shorter sentences. Or, you can rewrite the sentence using completely new, more concise words. All three of those improve the flow of your writing.
 
Compound sentences, where you use commas to break up separate thoughts, such as this sentence, may or may not be too long. When in doubt, go for shorter sentences.
 
2. Go through your writing and look for words you use repeatedly. Most of you will find "that" "very" "always" "some" "because" "just" "will be" "really" "great" "but" and many others show up over and over. You'll also find you have personal favorite words you repeat, or you repeat a particular word in an article. Look up synonyms for your favorite or over-used words, and use them, instead. There's nothing
wrong with any word. But every word distracts, when we use it too often. The exception may be when you want to create a personal, chatty style. For instance, if you write a news column. Then using your own favorites repeatedly can be effective. Most of the time, though, it's too informal and comes off as lazy.
 
Click delete every time you see "very." Get rid of it! That could shorten your piece quite a bit right there!  You see, a "really big" house is no bigger than a "big house." A "very beautiful" dog is the same as a beautiful dog. Really and very do nothing for a sentence. When we speak we use them because they add some color and meaning to speech. In writing, they get in the way. 
 
     Those are two quick ways to start an Edit of your work: Shorten long sentences. Delete over-used words. That sounds simple, but it does take some practice. You learn over time how to spot the problems; and how to fix them once you see them. It's a lot of fun, and greatly rewarding, when you are able to bring your writing go a smoother flow, and a far greater impact, with a bit of simple editing.   
 
Let Yourself Bloom!
© Kimberly Bate

Photo By The Polyglot