How to Stop Over-Editing: What You Need To Know
Write, edit, repeat — repeat — repeat — stop stalling and publish
You’ve all seen stories and articles you’re sure were dashed off in an hour. Or less. The words were splattered across the page in some semblance of order, a semi-provocative title was added, a shop-worn, over-used photo slapped on the top and — Voila — it’s ready to go.
As you skim through, you wonder how the writer could possibly believe it’s a finished piece of work. There may be no obvious typos, spelling mistakes or serious grammatical errors, but anyone with half an eye can see it needs a good edit — even a not-so-good edit would help.
Not you, though. You’re the kind of writer who would never send your children out into the cold, cruel world with their coats undone or their shoes unbuckled, metaphorically speaking. You make sure each paragraph puts its best foot forward. Even your ‘spontaneous’ rants receive a thorough review before they’re released to public view.
And anything truly serious — a novel, a short story, a piece of poetry — well, the world may end before those will ever be as polished as you’d like.
