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Iron out your editing!
Editing is like ironing.
I don’t think anyone thinks to themselves when they’re in the middle of reading great writing, Oh, I wonder who their editors are? Love editors. They’re great and deserve recognition, but the fact of the matter is no one really thinks that in the middle of reading. But just like ironing, you definitely can tell when it’s not done; you never think to yourself, ‘oh, they iron their shirt’. But if they’re a wrinkly mess then you’re definitely thinking ‘they didn’t iron their shirt’.
Ironing, just like editing, goes unnoticed if it’s done well. That’s its job to make it look polished, loving, and professional. I hate editing almost as much as I hate ironing. But it must be done. But just like everything, too much is a bad thing, and too little is a bad thing. I have this friend and it’s annoying to no end but love them they can’t go two seconds without editing the sentence they wrote. They’re always like, ‘I wish I could write as fast as you’ and I just look at them and then back at my screen full of red underlined marks and then back at them. Because I know that editing comes later, getting ideas written no matter how messy they are is the most important first step. So, my documents always have so many red marks it looks like it has been cut.
Many people don’t know there are so many different types of editing that go into books. I…
