That Editing Thing
That Editing Thing
By Tom Howe
There is no great writing, only great rewriting.
~ Justice Brandeis
I’ve been a writer for many years, since I’m so old and everything, so have spent many and many an hour editing. A lot more hours editing than writing, actually, so it’s well into the thousands of hours by now. I had become as good at it as any non-objective person could be, I thought. Not that I figured I could make something of mine perfect at all. But I did think I had mastered most of the tricks of the trade, at least, and knew my own mind well enough to realize it when I felt something needed to be changed from the original words.
I was wrong, again. Learnage ho.
You see there’s this thing, this feeling. It’s very subtle, at least in me, and hardly even there at all, unless you know to look for it. It’s the kind of thing you only learn after countless similar experiences, because you can’t even see it unless you’ve been looking in that direction so long you are almost blind and have to use your ears to see.
It’s a way to tell when something is wrong. Read the rest of the Fabulous Article
