To unfairly speak ill of someone or criticize their character, like saying that Tony the Tiger is dumb because he rolls his R's. False. He is not dumb. It's a personality trait that's landed him on billions of cereal boxes. BILLIONS. How many cereal boxes have you been on? Exactly—or, actually, eeeeeeeeexactly.
PointingDavid LynchFingersSharp dressed manSlowly moving gifsGulliver in Lamputia?
Writing is a talent, but editing is a skill. Although all of us can write, we get better at the act and skill of writing by editing (either in our minds or in reality). Editing forces us to think about how our writing reads to others, not about how it sounds to us.
Over at LitHub, Random House editor Anna Pitoniak shares a variety of lessons that she's learned while editing. These are universally worth reading. Here's a sampler:
When you are writing, you are attempting to communicate an idea to the world. In the first draft, the idea is still expressed in your own private language. It takes many revisions to clarify what you are really trying to say. As an editor, these are the notes I find myself scribbling in the margins of so many manuscripts: Clarify. Don’t get this. What does this mean? The language must be put through the wringer, over and over and over, so that when a reader finally picks up the book, they can say: I know exactly what she means.
Pacing was one of those things that I never actually thought about until I was an editor. I took it for granted as a reader without understanding how it worked, sort of how I’ll take for granted a car riding smoothly without knowing anything about its suspension. It is one of the more mechanical aspects of writing, and for a lot of writers, it takes practice to become cognizant of pacing. As an editor, you start to see that there are inflection points, places where you feel your attention wandering and where the pace needs to pick up. Sometimes this means planting a hook: a new question or new complication that needs resolution, which will keep a reader turning the pages. Sometimes this means stripping the prose down: once a reader is immersed in the story, a writer no longer needs to supply so much detail and context (a reader can fill it in herself at that point) and the story can move faster. Pacing doesn’t necessarily need to be the first thing you worry about as a writer, but it is a layer you must work on after the words are on the page.
You can read all of Pitoniak's tips over at LitHub.
WritingEditingScratch thatSpeed, rhythm, pacingGood, solid adviceThe devil is in the details?