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Saving Your Work
from the Knife: What I Learned from a Year of Editing Other People’s Writing
By Nannette Croce
When a friend invited me to join her editing staff at an ezine for writers, I
almost turned her down. I had no experience, but more importantly, I saw editing
as boring detail work that would only detract from my own writing.
I had a lot to learn, in more ways than one. Not only did I enjoy helping
writers bring out the best in their work, but after a year of trimming articles
to fit the space allowed, or simply to remove the "excess fat," I
learned the following valuable lessons on how to keep my own work from going
under the editor's knife.
Cut To The Chase – Avoid Long Introductions
Long introductions add words to an article, but not much else. We all know how
important it is to grab the reader with our first lines, but too many of us
think that the way to accomplish this is through long, flowery paragraphs, which
often end up straying from the topic and giving little idea of what will follow.
Readers don’t want to waste time on articles that give no clue what they’re
about, or start out one way and end up another. A good introduction grabs
readers by telling them in a few well-chosen words what is to come. It’s the
promise that if they continue reading they will learn more about what you merely
touched on in your first lines.
In many articles, including my own, I often find the perfect beginning buried
somewhere around the third paragraph. When this happens, it’s time to cut all
the preceding fluff; no matter how hard you worked on it or how poetic it
sounds. If you find this happening a lot with your work, you may want to
consider turning things around and writing the beginning last, when you have a
more specific idea of exactly what your article is about.
Break Up Your Article With Precise Subheadings
Most people these days are put off by line after line of unbroken prose,
especially on the Internet. Writing in shorter paragraphs and dividing your
article into sections under subheadings can make your piece more “inviting.”
Precise, well-chosen subheadings can also provide benefits beyond the visual.
They tell the reader what is coming next and continue the promise set forth in
your introduction; they save words by eliminating the need for transitions; and
they help you, the writer, to stay on track and not meander – if you can’t
come up with a succinct heading for a section of your article, you’re probably
a little unclear about what you are trying to say.
Stick To The Point
When a writer has done a lot of research or is particularly knowledgeable on a
subject it’s natural to want to tell all you know. However, too much
information not only confuses and bores readers, it wastes valuable material
that could be used for other saleable articles. The same is true of that
“clever” line that you hate to let go of, even though it strays a little
off-point.
One way to avoid this problem is to outline, though some writers find this too
constraining. Another is to work closely off your query. If it was accepted,
chances are it doesn’t include a lot of extraneous information. Still another
method is to streamline during the rewrites. Whenever you come across something
that leads readers in a different direction or does nothing to emphasize your
point, cut it and put it in a separate folder of ideas for new articles.
Tie It All Up At The End
Short stories and personal essays start slowly and then build to a climax.
However, informative articles should start and end on the same note, so that, at
the end, everything is tied up in a neat little package. One big mistake writers
make, especially those more accustomed to creative writing, is trying to impress
readers with a wordy ending that doesn’t really tie back to the beginning.
Instead of a story or essay, think of your article more like a college paper or
a report you might give at a conference, only with a little more pizzazz. You
start out stating your thesis. You make your points simply and clearly, then you
summarize at the end. The format itself sounds stilted and boring, but it’s
the bare framework that you will adorn with your talent and unique voice.
Cut, Cut, And Cut Some More
You’d think that the last word in article writing would be tying up the
ending, but it’s not. In the upside down world of writing, the end is just the
beginning. I’ve edited far too many articles where the writer promised 1500
words, and with only a mild apology, submitted 2000. After the ending, comes the
cutting.
When an editor agrees to a 1500 word article, that’s what she budgets for in
space and money. She is not about to change her entire layout simply because you
couldn’t follow directions. Instead, your article will get cut down to size,
and chances are you won’t like the finished product.
Even if your article does fall just within the maximum word count, an editor may
cut it anyway due to space restrictions, or because it’s just too “wordy.”
Unfortunately, many writers still think that long, convoluted constructions
sound erudite, but, in fact, the best writers use the fewest and most precise
words to express themselves. You can improve your writing, and save yourself the
grief of seeing your work cut to bits, by sticking closer to the minimum word
count set forth in the publication’s guidelines. If the editor wants more
after reading your submission, it’s much easier to add a few words than to cut
300.
Like most writers, I don’t submit an article until I think I have a finished
product, so it really used to bug me when editors came back with changes or
cuts. Now, after a year of editing other people’s work, I can appreciate how
an objective reader can see things that I don’t, even if it’s just a matter
of making my article fit better into the style of their magazine. It’s rare for an editor to publish any submission
without some changes; however, by following the rules I learned in my editing
work I find less of my work going under the editor’s knife.
A little over a year ago Nannette Croce took the plunge and started writing
as a career rather than a hobby. Her articles on the craft of writing have
appeared in T-Zero Expandizine, the Writers Ezine, where she also volunteers as
assistant editor of nonfiction. Her essays have appeared in The Philadelphia
Inquirer, and her short story Dora’s Memoir is scheduled for publication in
Beginnings Magazine in 2004.
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