Editing: Part 2 – What are the different kinds of editing?

In the first installment of the series, we talked about what editing is: preparing written material for publication or presentation. This series specifically covers self-editing: preparing your own work to publish, to submit to a publication, or – if you’re a freelancer – to turn in to your client. Now, let’s talk about different kinds … Read more

Editing: Part 1 – What is editing?

Several weeks ago, I wrote about a post about roundups, themes, and link love posts. I mentioned that I intend to write one series each month and asked for input on subjects readers would like to know more about. Word vixen left this comment: I’d personally like to know more about editing. Particularly whether it’s … Read more

Writing versus Editing

Theda at Crayon Writer started an interesting conversation with If you can write, you can copyedit. She defined mechanical and substantive copyediting and asked the question: What do you prefer? Writing for yourself, mechanical copyediting, or substantive copyediting? I answered the question in comments but thought it would be interesting to my readers to carry … Read more

Editing: Turning Dreck into Prose

In an earlier post, I talked about writing the first draft … and expecting it to be “pure green dreck.” No two writers will write exactly the same way. But many writers find it most effective to write the first draft from beginning to end without spending time editing. Changing from creation to polishing can interfere with the … Read more