Skip to main content

Editing Hurts

Editing hurts. Yes. It hurts when someone cuts your words, rearranges your sentences, deletes your creative use of language, etc. It hurts.

The first thing a writer has to do is leave their ego at the door.

Most writers write with passion and passion doesn't always reflect good grammar or proper use of punctuation. I recently edited for the CEO of a large corporation. She was taken aback by my edits and questioned if she wanted someone cutting her writing up like I did. But, while she might be a great CEO, her grammar, word choices and sentence structure were lacking.

Most people, when writing with passion, give little thought to how their words are put together. The words spill out with feeling while grammar is laid aside. And that's ok. That's actually how it should be. We should write with passion.....then hire a good editor to make our points flow well and be cohesive.

We editors make your passion shine by clothing your writing in easy-to-read prose with good grammar and punctuation.

While it might hurt to have your writing edited, you're smart for getting it done.

Write well.
Write often.
Just write.
~Tricia
Labels:

Comments

  1. UnknownMarch 13, 2019 at 6:55 PM

    Great points! After completing my dissertation last year, I realized that I had to edit the passion out of it and just leave the facts. It was hard to do that, but necessary. There was a strong emotional attachment to the meaning that I put into the document initially. However, the emotional component needed to go, and it did.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Top Ten Most Common Edits - 2

My #2 most common edit is "toward." The vast majority of my clients use "towards" instead of "toward," as in, "Walking towards the entrance..." I correct this every time because in the US, where we use what is commonly called American English, the preferred choice is "toward," as in single. "Towards" is more commonly used in UK English and Australian English, as noted on Grammarly . In the USA, it's best to say, "Walking toward the entrance...." So, while "towards" is acceptable in other countries, for the US and Canada, "toward" is a much better choice. Keep moving toward good grammar! Write well. Write often. Just write. ~Tricia
Post a Comment
Read more

Overcoming Failure - Part 1

Every writer has failures. Without exception. Dr. Seuss was rejected 27 times before he was finally able to get And to Think I Saw it on Mulberry Street published by Vanguard Press in 1937.  Search other famous authors and you will find they were all rejected at some point. Famed author Amanda Hocking came to my writing class with a thick folder full of rejection letters. When she, in class, learned about self-publishing and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing , she published her own work. Soon, after selling over 1 million copies, she got the attention of some of the largest publishing houses. Then they fought for her. They could fight for you one day. In my book, Writing for Publication , I give 6 ways to overcome rejection and failure in your writing. My next 6 blog posts will each highlight one of these techniques. Appreciate your Own Talent If you know you are a good writer  and  if you have something valid to say,  appreciate that in yourself...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: Hillbilly Elegy

This book, Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance, describes my life so well it's eerie. I was born in Middletown, OH, into a Hillbilly Elegy . Some of the stories J.D. Vance told in this book could have been my own. Like Vance, I worked my entire life to overcome and rise above my Hillbilly Elegy. I wanted something more than the despair and unreasonable use of alcohol I saw all around me growing up. Fortunately for me, only half my family had the full Hillbilly Elegy in force. My mother and my maternal grandmother defied the odds of their Hillbilly Elegy by rising above it and insisting on more civilized behavior, which resulted in a more civilized lifestyle. Neither of them drank alcohol, even though both their husbands did. I don't recall my maternal grandfather ever drinking in their house and I would be hard pressed to remember ever seeing a beer in their refrigerator. It was an unspoken truth, known by everyone in the family, that my grandmother did not tolerate drinking in ...
Post a Comment
Read more