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The hardest part of writing for me is never the writing. It’s transforming the writing into something that other people might actually want to read. Editing, as an art form, uses an entirely different set of mental and creative muscles than putting new words on an empty page. It takes objectivity, discernment and no small amount of self-support. Not every word we write is worthy of being read. Likewise, not every word we write is crap that should never see the light of day.
Of course you can enlist friends to read your work, and editors to give feedback. Both will help give you some level of perspective on writing quality and whether the story works or not, but when it comes down to it, we all inevitably find ourselves facing the printed page and wondering what to do next.
In his article “Five Lessons for DIY Line Editing,” writer Bradley Robb shares some good advice on how to get started and what pitfalls to avoid when self-editing your work. It won’t do the work for you, but can definitely help make what editing work you do as effective as it can be.
