{"id":283,"date":"2022-02-03T13:32:03","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T13:32:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/?p=283"},"modified":"2022-02-28T21:03:42","modified_gmt":"2022-02-28T21:03:42","slug":"edit-writing-like-a-boss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/03\/edit-writing-like-a-boss\/","title":{"rendered":"Edit writing like a boss"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"576\" src=\"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists-1024x576.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-285\" srcset=\"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists-768x432.png 768w, https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists-1536x864.png 1536w, https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Copy-of-Detectorists.png 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>&#8216;Perfectionism&#8217; by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/pdamsten\/\">Petri Damst\u00e9n<\/a>, licensed under CC by 2.0<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I realised the importance of creating an effective, methodical self-editing process, I reached out to the best writers I knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wasn\u2019t just looking for tips.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I wanted to get stomped into the ground. I wanted smart people to insert fishhooks into my weaknesses, attach rope to the hooks, and haul me into the air like a grisly puppet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sorry if you\u2019ve just eaten. But there\u2019s no room for pity or indulgence when it comes to editing writing. The fact is, you\u2019re not as good a writer as you think you are. Find someone who can show you why you suck, and you\u2019ll save yourself years of bad writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let them bang your head against the wall of your failure a few times. You\u2019ll soon see what that wall is built of, and you can start pulling out those mistakes yourself. In time, you\u2019ll avoid them automatically as you write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If you\u2019ve got time, it\u2019s good to take several passes, with a different approach in each pass. This is how professional editors work \u2013 there\u2019s plenty of editors who earn a living specialising in just one of the approaches listed below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Developmental editing<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Structural editing<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Copy editing<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Line editing<\/strong><\/li><li><strong>Mechanical editing<\/strong><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"developmental-editing\"><strong>Developmental editing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>It\u2019s always good to start with the \u2018big picture\u2019 stuff. And if you can, leave that first draft alone for as long as possible before editing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019ve just written it, all the details are fresh in your mind. You understand completely everything that\u2019s on the page, and you know why it\u2019s there. It all makes sense \u2013 to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You know who doesn\u2019t understand? Your reader, that\u2019s who. Not until you\u2019ve explained it to them. So, when you edit writing, you need to get in reader mode first. And if you can let the details of what you\u2019ve written fade from your mind, then you\u2019ll see it from their point of view when you come back to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Is anyone going to know what you\u2019re on about? Does the piece actually have a point? Does the reader leave the piece any wiser than when they came in? How well have you satisfied the intention of the piece?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Developmental editing example<\/em><\/strong><em> \u2013 Sometimes, you\u2019re up against the clock. When time is <s>of the essence <\/s>short, a banzai editing process can be really useful, based on your own ingrained bad habits. I decided that showing my banzai edit style may also be of value to anyone reading this article, so I<\/em> <em>included my checklist at the end.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"structural-editing\"><strong>Structural editing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Ok, they get the point. You\u2019ve got your idea across, thanks to your developmental editing. You\u2019ve got the ball over the line. But did you deliver your point with accuracy and elegance, or did you just shoulder charge through, with your arguments going every which way?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Structural editing is the single greatest editing kindness you can perform for your reader. Structure your thoughts on the page. Give them something to read that flows. Show them the map at the beginning, then lead them round the attractions. Let the logic of your various arguments accumulate, leading inescapably to your conclusion. Don\u2019t make them trudge randomly back and forth behind you, wincing at your clumsy, repetitive stumbling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s a good time to consider style, too \u2013 start weeding out your clunkers here. That includes avoidable use of the <strong>passive voice<\/strong>, and looking for opportunities to add <strong>sensory description.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Structural editing example \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><em>the \u2018ball over the line\u2019 analogy above was getting a bit torturous, with clunky references to footballers I knew nothing about (I\u2019ve stopped following football sometime around 2002). I stripped it back, but decided to keep the descriptive aspects.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"copy-editing\"><strong>Copy editing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Your article\/blog\/short story\/angry letter to your MP should be looking pretty sweet by now. Unfortunately, we\u2019re aiming for excellence, so you\u2019re not done yet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s really put the screws on this piece, and see where we can get to. We\u2019re looking to trim the fat now. Pulling out your unnecessary words &#8211; that, now, he, and, just, but, though. Kill all that nervous tic punctuation (yes, the hyphens <strong>and <\/strong>the colons. I\u2019m assuming you had the decency not to include exclamation marks in the first place).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We\u2019re still keeping an eye out for passive voice, as well as making grammatical tweaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Copy editing example<\/em><\/strong><em> \u2013 I originally wrote this line as \u2018tweaking for grammar\u2019, which on reflection sounded like I was dancing provocatively for an elderly relative.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"line-editing\"><strong>Line editing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Exactly what it sounds like. You\u2019re going line by line. This should feel like a gruelling slog. You\u2019re looking out for a lot of the same clangers you were hunting during the copy edit, but you\u2019re slowing right down to ask yourself, \u2018Is that <em>really <\/em>the best way to say that?\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assess the line for style &#8211; could it be simpler, clearer? Could it be more evocative?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Assess the line for structure &#8211; Is this sentence too long? How does this line fit with the ones before and after it? Is the rhythm or sentence length too repetitive?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Go word by word where necessary &#8211; Is there a more effective word choice I could make?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Line editing example \u2013 <\/em><\/strong><em>\u2018annoyingly long process\u2019 became \u2018gruelling slog\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"mechanical-editing\"><strong>Mechanical editing<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Nuts and bolts time. Get yourself in \u2018pedantic English teacher\u2019 mode, pull out the dreaded red pen, and go super-pernickety on your spellings, punctuation, line spacing \u2013 all the fun stuff. Or alternatively;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Copy and paste your article into an email<\/li><li>Switch on the Grammarly extension<\/li><li>Swear at the American spelling corrections<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you really want to get this side of things nailed down (it <em>is <\/em>important, no matter what all the greengrocer\u2019s say) then hire a proofreader to pull your work apart. Make a note of the mistakes they highlight, and add them to your banzai edit checklist. And don\u2019t be ashamed, there\u2019s a reason proofreaders are so popular at parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Finished! <\/strong>Look at that. It\u2019s beautiful. Now send it off to the client and wait for it to come back to you disfigured and unrecognisable, like it\u2019s been attacked by a pride of lions who\u2019ve worked out how to \u2018Track Changes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"uncle-dan-s-banzai-edit-checklist\"><strong>Uncle Dan\u2019s Banzai Edit Checklist<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This isn\u2019t for you to copy. Unless your flaws are exactly the same as mine. Hey, maybe you\u2019ve got piles and a false front tooth too! It\u2019s unlikely that we match that closely though. Just find your least attractive features and make a checklist. Then you\u2019ve got a tool to put behind the \u2018break in case of emergency\u2019 glass. Here\u2019s mine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Punctuation \u2013 incorrect. <\/strong>INSIDE the speech marks, good practice to use a comma before a reporting clause.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Punctuation \u2013<\/strong> <strong>excessive.<\/strong>&nbsp; Remove hyphens, exclamation marks, colons, unless serving a specific purpose.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Unnecessary words \u2013<\/strong> <strong>he, and, just, that, now, but, though.&nbsp; <\/strong>Look for them at the beginning and ends of sentences, paras, clauses<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Active voice (unless passive is serving a purpose, or using active would render the sentence unreadable or strange).<\/strong>&nbsp; This will also help remove unnecessary \u2018state-of-being\u2019 words, e.g., is, am, are, was, etc. Not: There was a man standing on the train platform. Rather: A man stood on the train platform.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Avoid hedging verbs<\/strong> whenever you can, like&nbsp;<em>smiled slightly, almost laughed, frowned a bit,<\/em>&nbsp;etc.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Maximise sensory description.<\/strong>&nbsp; At least one per paragraph, ideally, depending on topic and tone.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Really hope this has been of use to you. I\u2019d love to see what crimes other people might put on their Banzai checklists \u2013 if you\u2019re feeling brave, friend, you can share yours in the comments box below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>P.S. I edited the living shit out of this blog. I bet I missed a bit though \u2013 if you spot it let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When I realised the importance of creating an effective, methodical self-editing process, I reached out to the best writers I knew. I wasn\u2019t just looking for tips. I wanted to get stomped into the ground. I wanted smart people to insert fishhooks into my weaknesses, attach rope to the hooks, and haul me into the &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/2022\/02\/03\/edit-writing-like-a-boss\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Edit writing like a boss<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":285,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"","site-content-layout":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,11],"tags":[28,27,26,25,24],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog-writing","category-general-interest","tag-blog-writing","tag-content-writing","tag-copywriting","tag-editing","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":292,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions\/292"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magnifycopy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}