Editing Your Work
Editing your own work
is always painful. Having one or two persons who can give you helpful feedback is invaluable. My wife is such
a person and I don’t take her for granted. I like what Stephen King said in a book he wrote about writing, ‘take
out what is not the story.'
It is not easy to do.
And an outsider is in a much better position to tell you that. I have one test: if you take something out of
your story (poem or whatever) and you do not miss it, it did not belong there.
The beauty of a well written piece is what is left out–like a beautiful piece of music where every note counts.
You do not want to discourage the reader with clutter. You want every word to count. Having said that, it is
not easy to do. A good editor is worth their weight in gold.
