Physician, heal thyself – tips for better self-inflicted editing

Posted: June 11, 2014

The conflict between writer and editor is rarely more pronounced than when fate finds one person doing both. Beyond a careful check of spelling generally and of names specifically, plus a confirmation of all subject-verb agreement, here are a few tips I’ve found that help. Apply them ruthlessly and with cold aplomb, and you’ll find you appreciate yourself for it, once you’ve forgiven yourself.

Eliminate nearly every instance of the word “that.” Elmore Leonard famously said writing should read like dialogue, not like writing, and such is almost always the case, but dropping “that” into text in the way it would be used by someone speaking makes for needless bulk in the copy. Leave it in if its absence creates confusion, but otherwise your work will be better with nearly every “that” removed.
Kill the clichés. We would all recoil in horror if we found ourselves typing “the iron fist in the velvet glove,” but much less offensive examples are apt to sneak in. Instead of mentioning “the beauty in all the little everyday things,” take a sentence to describe two or three of those things: “The boys’ wonder brought to me again the scent of the tall grass by the lake at sundown, the sound of grasshoppers taking wing as we brushed by.” Write succinctly, but don’t take lazy shortcuts.
The more you eliminate the jargon, the more welcoming your copy will be. With few exceptions, almost any audience will gladly allow you a sentence or two to explain the genesis of a word. In layman’s terms, where do shotgun gauges come from, and what do the numbers on a scope’s specifications mean? Explaining how the diameter of lead balls is related to one and just how magnification and light gathering properties are corralled by the other not only brings in a wider audience, but makes your work more interesting to boot.

Biz Tips From the POMA Pros author Kevin Tate, is the Creative Director Mossy Oak Productions and an immensely gifted writer. Save