What to edit

“Danny taught me that you can never create something worth reading unless you are committed to the total destruction of everything that isn’t.”

Jason Zweig [on Danny Kahneman]

Because first drafts are the first roll of the dice, all sorts of tangles and traps, redundancies and repetitions work their way in.

From the second roll, your job is to question everything you wrote. The editor puts the writer on trial.

The point of editing is to scrutinise the words you picked, making sure they're the best vehicles to get the idea from your mind, as exactly as possible, to the mind of your reader.

Scrutinise comes from the Latin scrutari which means to search or examine. And that’s the editor’s challenge. You must actively search for flaws and discrepancies in your writing because they will hide from you. You can’t expect them to surrender. You must hunt them.

You’re working against three forces:

It all reads so well at first. We’re blind to the errors and bad ideas. Revealing them takes other people, or time, often both, and it’s not a quick fix.

• We’re lazy so we don't want to write much
• We’re vain so we focus on ourselves
• We’re selfish so we want our reader's time and money for nothing
• We’re busy so we would rather it all didn't take so long

We are not taught to edit at school.

We are not taught:

• what to cut
• what to keep
• what to keep that we could cut
• how to edit
  
  

We weren’t taught that re-writing is writing.

Editing isn’t a 15 minute job. It is the job.

In fact, it is the four jobs.

The editing hierarchy:

1. Developmental editing
2. Line editing
3. Copy editing
4. Proofreading

A developmental editor looks at the structure, organisation, and clarity of writing. This might be an article, an essay, a research paper, or a business proposal. They give feedback on the overall argument or narrative arc, the flow of ideas, the relevance and sufficiency of evidence, and the organisation of sections or paragraphs.

A line editor makes sure the language flows well, that sentences are well constructed, and that the writer's voice is consistent. They pay close attention to word choice, language nuances, and overall readability. Whether it's a formal report, a blog post, or a university thesis, a line editor ensures the writing is engaging and clear.

A copy editor's job is to correct grammar, punctuation, spelling, and syntax. They also ensure consistency in terms of language use (British or American English, for example) and style. They may also check facts and look out for potential legal issues, such as libel or copyright infringement.

Proofreading is the final check before a piece of writing is published or submitted. A proofreader looks for any missed errors in grammar, spelling, punctuation, or formatting. This applies to any type of writing that's being prepared for public view, from a book manuscript to a business report to a job application. The proofreader's goal is to make sure the final piece is as polished and error free as possible.

Most people quickly proofread their work and consider it edited.

A few will take the steps a copy editor would take.

Fewer still, do the hard cutting a line editor does.

And an infinitesimal amount consider the concept and think critically like a developmental editor does.

“To most people, rewriting is an act of cosmetology: You nip, you tuck, you slather on lipstick. To Danny, rewriting is an act of war: If something needs to be rewritten then it needs to be destroyed. The enemy in that war is yourself.”

Jason Zweig [on Danny Kahneman]

The task of an editor is hidden within that word.

Editor = Re do it

You must wage war on your words. You must wage war on the part of you that wrote the words. The part that will whisper to you, all the reasons why they should stay. The whispering will become logically-backed-persuasion, and then begging.

The popular writing antidote is a call to kill your darlings.

It’s harder than that though.

That phrase’s earliest known use is this:

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch

It’s murder. It’s more personal. That’s why it’s so hard.

You must make every word fight for its place. You must default to delete. You must question each idea asking what would I truly lose by losing the words? You must try to get rid of words. You must plot their murder. You must make arguments for their demise, and if in doubt, or neutral, fall to the side of deletion.


I cannot overstate how much better your copy will be once you’ve ripped apart your own work, and stripped it clean.

"The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components"

William Zinsser

Your aim is to create clean, sturdy, sentences. You must realise, that in itself puts you ahead of most. Be proud, as I was, and still am, of a well constructed, simple structure. There’s elegance in it.

Later, in the How to write section you’ll learn how to elevate your writing. You won’t lose your voice or your personality, because, remember, Atomic Copy has:

All the meaning
All the soul
In the fewest words

For now, let’s take a look at what you’re hunting for as the editor.