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Edit Your Own Writing

Turn a rough draft into something tight by editing in passes — structure, then paragraphs, then sentences — and cutting the words that carry no weight. Use when editing a draft, tightening prose, or when writing feels flabby.

---
name: edit-your-own-writing
category: creative
description: >-
  Turn a rough draft into something tight by editing in passes — structure, then
  paragraphs, then sentences — and cutting the words that carry no weight. Use
  when editing a draft, tightening prose, or when writing feels flabby.
---

# Edit Your Own Writing

Writing and editing are different jobs, and doing them at once produces both
badly. Drafting needs momentum; editing needs suspicion. Separate them — ideally
by a night's sleep, at minimum by a walk.

Then edit in passes, largest first. Polishing a sentence in a paragraph you are
about to delete is wasted effort, and it makes you reluctant to delete it.

## Pass 1 — Structure

Read only the headings and the first sentence of each paragraph. That skeleton
should make sense on its own and follow an order.

Ask:

- **Is the point in the first paragraph?** Most drafts bury it three paragraphs
  down, after the throat-clearing. Move it up and delete what came before.
- **Does each section earn its place?** If a section could be removed without
  the reader missing it, remove it.
- **Is the order the reader's, or mine?** Drafts follow the order you figured
  things out in. Readers need the order that makes it easiest to understand,
  which is usually close to the reverse.

This pass produces the biggest improvements and is the one most often skipped.

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