Archive for August, 2010

It’s Easier To Edit Crap Than Air!

Are you experiencing writer's block in some form or another?  Are you having trouble finishing that sales letter? Finishing that article? Finishing that chapter? Or even writing that blog post or email?

The most common problem I see with writer's block is that people are trying to make their writing perfect as soon as they write it.  I am here to tell you that you HAVE to get over that!  You cannot edit as you go along.  You need to write first - and edit later.

You do that by dictating, by reading forwards and backwards, and reading aloud.  It is more important than anything to get something on paper until you can edit it.

I once tutored someone in College who was trying to write an essay, and I literally saw her rewrite the same sentence TWELVE times until she had something she liked!  This meant that in the time it took her to write one page, I could have written twelve pages!

This is One of Those Top Habits to Break!

You need to get used to writing down just the first draft of whatever you want to say.  You know how to string together a sentence TALKING to someone - and that means you can put together real coherent talks.  You need to write the way you talk!

For me, I can write a first draft pretty easily; but when I am stuck I do have to dictate it and get it transcribed.  Maybe this is what you have to do:  dictate it, then hand it on to someone on a service like Elance or oDesk and get them to transcribe it for you.

Now, what do you do when you have the text that comes back from the transcriptionist?  It's time to edit it.  If you are not careful, you are going to run across the same problem I explained with the College student who rewrote the same sentence twelve times over!  The key to editing is you see what catches your eye and make it a little bit better.  It is never, ever going to be 100% perfect!

All You Can Do is Make It a Little Bit Better...

Here is what I like to do: I like to read it first backwards and then forwards.  Reading it backwards makes it seem less tedious and more like I am reading something new. It also helps with the transitions:  if I made a very strange transition from paragraph to paragraph, it is much more easy to spot when you are reading backwards.  Read the bottom paragraph first, then the second-to-last, the third-to-last, and so on.

If you spot a sentence that doesn't quite seem right or is too long, throw out small chunks - but not big chunks.  I know you are tempted to rewrite the whole entire sentence from scratch - but 99% of your sentences are salvageable!  Usually, you just need to rearrange some of the words or remove some of the words, to say the same exact thing; and now the same point has been made but suddenly it makes sense.

I know that when you write or when you talk, you don't speak gibberish! You DO have points you are trying to make; the only issue is what are the correct words and phrases to make those points?

Finally, something that helps me a ton with editing is reading what I just wrote aloud.  Sometimes when I write things, they look okay in my head, but when I read them I realize how stupid it sounds; or when I really said one thing but meant another.  Read it aloud - or even better read it aloud to a friend or have a friend read it back to you.  You might cringe at first - but this will be really great for toughening you up and getting you used to people reading your material.  After all, isn't that the point - for you to write something and then have somebody else read it?

One other big benefit I have noticed from reading my material aloud is that I notice a lot of repeated words and phrases I use when I talk and when I write.  For example, words like "so", or "simply", or "like", or "however", or "but."  It is okay to say these words every now and then, but if you notice you are saying these at the beginning of every sentence or every paragraph, these are problem words you need to keep notice of and just note to scan for these particular words; remove them from your writing - and it will suddenly look a whole lot better.

And that is how you are going to edit the things you write so that you can write quickly, but also write well. Simply dictate or quickly write out the first draft version first, before even going into editing mode.  Never edit as you go. When you DO edit, edit very minimally.  Read backwards and forwards and throw out the small chunks but not the big chunks.  To help find things that need to be changed, read your work aloud, or even get a friend to read it - especially to notice the repeated words and phrases.

How much of a problem is editing for you? What is your best editing tip?  Post a comment below telling me. Thanks in advance for that!