Editing Tip #58

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Hi! I’m Kathy Ide. In addition to being a published author, I’m a full-time professional freelance editor. For CAN, I’m blogging about tips for writers based on the manuscripts I edit.          

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Save Your Darlings

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by Judith Couchman Might we in our rush to kill all our darlings risk beheading our only valuable bits of expression or insight?—John Crowley You write like crazy. Brilliant ideas spill from nowhere. Original word combinations flow. Then your editor says, “This passage doesn’t fit. We need to cut it.” The editor deletes paragraphs of your stellar work. You feel like you witnessed a murder. Traditionally, writers call these cherished but unusable passages and pages their “darlings.” Authors around the world, from Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch to Stephen King, have advised writers to kill those darlings: the gorgeous words, sentences, and…

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Avoid the Most Common Writing Mistakes

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Georgia Shaffer from Pennsylvania Several of my coaching clients are writers and speakers who surprisingly make similar mistakes in their writing.  Here are six suggestions I find myself repeating, which you may find helpful. 1. Write and let it sit for awhile. Your writing should be allowed to age, like great relationships.  While you may not always have the luxury of time, plan ahead when possible. Work on other projects and come back to what you’ve written a couple of weeks later.  You’ll be stunned at what you find that you did not notice earlier. 2.  Hire a professional editor….

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