If you’ve ever made the assumption that great writers reach an ability level where editing the work becomes optional. Or if you think that editing is for the rookies, the up-and-comers, the amateurs. Or if you\u00a0think the professionals just vomit perfect prose and no longer any use for a mop. You’re way off.<\/p>\n
Writing Routines has interviewed Bestselling Novelists, Pulitzer Prize winning historians, Blockbuster Hollywood screenwriters, Poet Laureates, Congressional Speech Writers, Comedians, Journalists, Bloggers, and Songwriters. They haven\u2019t just given us their time. And if you\u2019re a writer, you know how protective writers are of their time. So, first, we thank them for that. But perhaps more valuable than their time, what they\u2019ve really given us (or frankly, what we\u2019ve stolen from them) is their trade secrets.<\/span><\/p>\n And these aren\u2019t \u201cthese might work\u201d trade secrets. You don\u2019t win the Pulitzer with a notebook full of \u201cthese might work\u201d secrets. Beneath each title listed on the New York Times bestseller is an army trained, battle tested arsenal of tactics and methods that is the writer\u2019s routine. The writer\u2019s we\u2019ve interviewed have each honed theirs. They differ to varying degrees. Some have morning rituals. Some don\u2019t. Some need utter silence. Some don\u2019t. Some need an hour of midday meditation or exercise. Some don\u2019t. But there\u2019s one thing that holds up unanimously. There\u2019s one part of the routine that every writer carves out time for, that no writer dismisses, that no writer is so good to do without.<\/span><\/p>\n The well-documented off-the-court regiments of great athletes like Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan come to mind for some reason. It is similar though. Kobe and Jordan are the greats because of the work we fans don\u2019t<\/em> see. That\u2019s what the great writers do. For Kobe and Jordan, how they did it differed but that they did it didn\u2019t. That\u2019s true for the great writers too.<\/span><\/p>\n If you\u2019re a writer, you\u2019re an editor. You need to be. And a once through skim to right click on the red squiggly underlining misspellings does not count as editing. The great writers are thorough. They take out the magnifying glass. They look through the scope with a sniper\u2019s eye. They dissect their drafts ruthlessly and repeatedly. Then they might even have a pair of trusted outsider eyes dissect it much the same.<\/span><\/p>\n The thoroughness, the diligence, the utter unavoidable importance of editing is universal among great writers. The methods vary,\u00a0so if you have been neglecting the editing process in your own work,\u00a0steal some of the tips below. Start taking editing as serious as the greats.<\/p>\n ***<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI tend to edit heavily and repeatedly as I go along, so I don\u2019t make the distinction, at least by myself. For the books that I\u2019ve written for a larger public, however, I\u2019ve had the help of an immensely gifted editor (Alane Mason, at Norton), so there I do separate out the tasks: in effect my own writing\/editing; and then a further editing after receiving her suggestions. I tend to hate the latter experience, though I recognize that it is almost invariably good\u2014a bit like swallowing disagreeable but essential medicine.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Stephen Greenblatt,\u00a0<\/strong>Harvard Professor, author of\u00a0\u00a0The Swerve<\/a>, that landed on the bestseller lists and\u00a0won both a Pulitzer Prize and a National Book Award<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt [editing] rests on three passes. The first pass is when you write the best chapter you can. The second pass comes later once the whole book (or whole part of the book containing the chapter) is done. During this pass, I come back to the chapter on my computer and cut and tighten. The final pass is when I read through a printed version of the chapter on paper. Reading on paper is necessary if you\u2019re going to root out odd constructions or minor errors.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Cal Newport,\u00a0<\/strong>author of the\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/i>\u00a0bestseller\u00a0Deep Work<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhen I\u2019m away from the laptop, I\u2019m mentally revising and rethinking almost constantly. When I come back, I start by going to the beginning of the chapter, and I read and revise everything I\u2019ve done so far. There has to be a better way, but I can\u2019t help it. When I\u2019m done with the chapter, I print it and go through it with a pencil, and do the same for the entire manuscript when it\u2019s done. I also read the finished work aloud. That\u2019s the best way to catch mistakes and infelicities and to refine the rhythm of the language.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013Pulitzer Prize winner\u00a0T.J. Stiles<\/b><\/a>, author of\u00a0Custer\u2019s Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cAfter I\u2019ve written a significant amount, I\u2019ll edit that section with paper and pen, rearrange, etc. On some level, I\u2019m taking dictation for the unwritten script that\u2019s in my head, and I know when something sounds right or sounds wrong. \u00a0When it\u2019s time for something resembling a final draft, I\u2019ll read it aloud to Margaret and find all sorts of new mistakes and room for improvement.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 John Avlon<\/strong>,\u00a0author of\u00a0Washington\u2019s Farewell<\/i><\/a>\u00a0and editor-in-chief of\u00a0The Daily Beast<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI write the intro, print it out, and edit it. Get it passable and close to what I wanted. Then I wrote the first chapter, and did the same. Then once I had a clear sense of what this book is going to be I wrote the first third, edited and then wrote the second third. But here, I would combine Part I and II and edit them together. Then Part I, II and III. So it\u2019s sort of recursive. The beginning is getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And as a result, I have interacted with the material so much at this point that the latter chapters need far less editing. By the time I\u2019ve finished I\u2019ve gone through the book dozens and dozens of times.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Ryan Holiday<\/strong>,\u00a0author<\/a>,\u00a0a ghost-writer<\/a>,\u00a0a columnist<\/a>,\u00a0an essayist<\/a>, a Grammy-award winning producer,\u00a0a book marketer<\/a>, and a book connoisseur, providing\u00a0monthly reading recommendations<\/a>\u00a0going on 8 years.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWhat I like to do is edit a chapter before I move onto the next one\u2026I would write 20-25 pages of a chapter in draft form, and the goal would just be to write the pages knowing that they were terrible. Some writers just keep on going, and they write the whole novel that way. But I stopped because I wanted to pay a lot of attention to the prose so I needed to make the prose as perfect as I could before I moved forward. I would just write the chapter to get the plot down and go back and revise a couple of times before I moved onto the next chapter\u2026So I only needed to revise that draft one more time before I turned it over to my agent. Then when my editor got his hands on it we revised it one more time after that.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Viet Thanh Nguyen, <\/strong>author of\u00a0The Sympathizer<\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>a NYT bestseller and Pulitzer Prize winning novel<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll usually take out the first and last paragraph to see what the story looks like without them\u2026Taking out the first paragraph always throws me more quickly into the story and into my \u201cvoice\u201d and the first paragraph was just filler while I got used to the topic. Then I might write the whole piece again. Or I might write paragraphs over. Then I take out extra words. Then extra syllables. And I don\u2019t like punctuation except for the period.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 James Altucher<\/strong>, author of\u00a0<\/span>Choose Yourself<\/a><\/em>\u00a0listed as one of USA Today\u2019s \u201cBest Business Books of All Time.\u201d\u00a0Reinvent Yourself<\/a><\/em>\u00a0was #1 book overall on Amazon.com<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, editing is as important as writing. No, probably even more important. I\u2019ve never been able to sit down and write the perfect sentence. I re\u2013write constantly \u2013 it\u2019s almost like being a carpenter sanding a piece of wood, again and again, until it\u2019s perfectly smooth. My best and oldest friend is my first editor; she\u2019s ruthless, clever and amazing. I don\u2019t trust anyone like her.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Andrea Wulf<\/strong>, b<\/span>estselling author of\u00a0The Invention of Nature<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>The Brother Gardeners<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Founding Gardeners<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>Chasing Venus<\/i><\/a>, and the co-author of\u00a0This Other Eden<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce I have a rough draft, I print it out, read it over once, formulate some general idea about how things should go, and then go through it sequentially at a rate of about ten pages a day. I only make changes to the manuscript in the morning, but in the afternoon I look over the pages I\u2019ll work on the next day and make a lot of notes. When I\u2019ve gone through the whole book, I take a break\u2014a week or two at first, longer when I get closer to a final draft\u2014and then I do it again. And again and again.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Aaron Their<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>Author of\u00a0The Ghost Apple<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0Mr. Eternity<\/i><\/a>, and\u00a0The World is a Narrow Bridge<\/i><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI try to write deliberately as I go so that even my first drafts will be presentable and polished, but the most useful thing for editing is always getting feedback from people you trust. For books, it\u2019s always good to exchange feedback with my co-author, Jimmy Soni; for academic work, there are always works-in-progress seminars and conferences to take advantage of for feedback.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Rob Goodman<\/strong>,\u00a0<\/span>a speechwriter for Congressman Steny Hoyer and Senator Chris Dodd. His\u00a0 book,\u00a0A MIND AT PLAY<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>was\u00a0Winner of the Neumann Prize for the History of Mathematics and\u00a0Named a best book of the year by\u00a0Bloomberg\u00a0and\u00a0Nature<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not a great editor of my own work in the traditional sense because I edit as I write. When you look at my first drafts, they have the polish of something much further down the line in the writing process. Because of that, I am not the best at identifying if something is slowing the narrative down, or if I\u2019m off topic, or anything that I would normally identify immediately in someone else\u2019s writing. So I have to rely on other people\u2019s notes and trust that they know what the hell they are talking about.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Nils Parker<\/strong>,\u00a0editor, ghostwriter and story consultant for creatives of all stripes. As an editor, Nils has been behind multiple\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0&\u00a0Wall Street Journal<\/em>\u00a0bestsellers<\/p>\n \u201cEditing is little like being a verbal sniper\u2014you\u2019re going back to readjust your aim continually. So I don\u2019t necessarily like to get too far in front of myself without having edited the piece. Sometimes I\u2019ll reread and edit 30 times or more. (Of course, you\u2019ll probably still catch typos in this writing!)\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Dr. Barbara Oakley<\/strong>,\u00a0bestselling author of\u00a0A Mind for Numbers<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and former Army Captain<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI edit every morning, every day. Cut cut cut cut cut cut \u2014 as much as I can. I want my stuff lean and mean, with no wasted words. I think that\u2019s a common mistake many writers make. They think readers love their words. Maybe. But in my case I always feel the shorter, the better.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Bryan Burrough<\/strong>,\u00a0Author of six books\u2014including the critically-acclaimed\u00a0Barbarians at the Gate<\/i><\/a>\u2014he\u2019s also a winner of the Loeb Award for financial journalism and Vanity Fair writer.<\/p>\n \u201cI need to step away from what I wrote before I can edit it intelligently.\u2026I do a 20-minute sauna session and bring only a notepad and a pen with me. Some of the best ideas I\u2019ve had in recent memory occurred to me in the solitary, stifling environment of that sauna. As I sit there sweating profusely, I\u2019ll think through what I wrote in the morning. As Stephen King put it, \u201cboredom can be a very good thing for someone in a creative jam.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Ozan Varol,<\/strong>\u00a0an author, a tenured law professor, and a rocket scientist. He is the author of\u00a0The Democratic Coup d\u2019\u00c9tat<\/i><\/a>, served on the operations team for the 2003 Mars Exploration Rovers mission, and declared a\u00a0public enemy<\/a>\u00a0in Turkey as a result of the arguments in his book<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI go from being kind to myself to being brutal. Every word is suspect, every sentence a potential embarrassment. Every idea has to be interrogated, every bit of dialogue examined, every scene put the to the test of \u201cWhat does this contribute to the story? Why? Do I need this scene? What does it add?\u201d \u00a0It is a very different mindset, much more punishing. I\u2019m way grumpier when I\u2019m editing because I\u2019m reminded daily of how crap I am at my job until I start editing.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Sabaa Tahir<\/strong>,\u00a0bestselling author of a YA fantasy series that began with the smash debut hit,\u00a0An Ember in the Ashes<\/i><\/a>, and was followed by\u00a0A Torch Against the Night<\/i><\/a>,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0A Reaper at the Gates<\/i><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI print the beast, grab my sharpie, and go somewhere other than behind my computer. I read, mark, sketch, slash, draw arrows, and slash on the page.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u2013 Joe Ballarini<\/strong>,\u00a0author of\u00a0A Babysitter\u2019s Guide to Monster Hunting<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and the writer of the movie,\u00a0Dance of the Dead<\/a><\/em>\u00a0and the upcoming\u00a0My Little Pony: the Movie<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I need to be two conflicting people to get through the editing process:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 1)Mr. Bozo The Punching Balloon: The smiling zero defensiveness guy who just looooooooves constructive feedback, never gets angry, and always pops back up.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n 2) Mr. Angry Gorilla On A Tiny Keyboard. That angry, over confident, assertive writer guy who unleashes words on a page in the strong, spirited way a master artist splatters paint on a canvas. He does whatever he wants so get out of his way.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2026Remember: Be Bozo and Kong.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n \u2013 Neil Pasricha<\/strong>,\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0bestselling author of\u00a0\u00a0The Book of Awesome<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0The Happiness Equation<\/em><\/a>, and three other books. His books have sold over a million copies worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n Sign up now and receive our free guide \u201c12 Essential Writing Routines To Help You To Craft Your Own<\/span><\/a>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n[*] Do It, Swallow The Medicine<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Write The Best Chapter You Can, But Then Still, Edit It<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Give Your Mind A Break, Put Your Ears To The Test<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Make It Stronger and Stronger and Stronger<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] If It\u2019s Extra, Take It Out<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Sand It Down, Keep It Smooth<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Get Away, Take A Week\u2019s Vacation<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Take \u2013 No \u2013 Ask For Feedback<\/h3>\n
[*] Be A Verbal Sniper<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] More Words Are More Words, For The Writer <\/span>And <\/span><\/i>The Reader<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Get Bored. Or Sweaty. Or Both.<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Be Brutal On Yourself<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Print The Beast<\/span><\/h3>\n
[*] Be A Bozo and A Kong<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nReady to create a writing routine of your\u00a0own?<\/h3>\n