You are your first editor, Are you?
Let me start with a simple story. One you might have heard a couple of times. Or maybe a different version but the essence will make you go down the lane of nostalgia.
It's your first day of school. You are shining in a new uniform. Shoes are polished. You're scared, crying to take the first step. It feels like you're losing out on something even though you're making a beginning. Those tiny steps, your mum, dad, or granny finally go and you're sitting with new faces. An unfamiliar feeling overwhelms you. However, days pass by and you start scribbling, trying, making mistakes and those remarks from teachers excite you.
The sounds of rhymes become a part of your life. You become a new version of yourself and your growth appears in little ways as you hold those candies in your tiny hands. New names bedeck your lips. Your lunch box is open for sharing with others. From feeling scared, you're stepping out to be what this new phase demands of you. You're you but you've expanded in ways you don't fathom yet.
Well, are you wondering how this relates to the editor's journey? You're sitting on your desk, or in some corner. Either typing, or writing. Your first draft takes shape. You feel it's perfect or maybe you feel you can do better. Questions pop up. You sense the fear of changing the piece, discarding paragraphs, eliminating some emotions.
The writer in you accompanies you to the last sentence. As you place the full stop, the writer has done its job. It's like when your parents ask your teacher to take care of you on the first day. The writer is going home, maybe sleeping, or doing some other chore. But the writer can't help you any further with the piece.
You have to step up as an editor. You have to allow yourself those mistakes, those scribbles here and there to understand what you could do differently. You have to be your first editor.
The kindergarten child smiles at you as you take that pen and underline words, highlight paragraphs that don't add any relevance to the content. He's using new colors to fill the drawings. The color of the apple isn't green, he realizes. The tree isn't any other color but green, he senses. The words you write are yours, but they don't always belong to a piece, is what you need to acknowledge as a writer.
A set of new crayons makes its way into the bag of the kindergarten child as the last one is either lost or broken. A new set of words need to find their way in your content as the words used may be outdated, or irrelevant. Now, see, how much can your kindergarten journey teach you.
The teeny tiny steps of editing begin when you let go of the words and mistakes but hold close the lessons. If a word, comma, or question mark doesn't make sense, it doesn't need to stay and you don't need to cling to it.
What if as children we only cling to one drawing book, one colored pencil, and one clay mold? Being rigid can be quite lethal. Flow, my friend. Allow words to flow. They can move away to make space for magic to unfold. Magic isn't in only big moments. Magic may happen with removing one comma that leads readers nowhere.
Hold onto the craft. But, make space for learning to flow. Your writing is yours, no doubt, but if you're not editing it, you're depriving the world of the magic of polished content. And, once you start editing your piece, you will be you, no doubt, but you will unleash a side of your writing and perspective alien even to you. Craft magic, Dear Friend. The power of editing will take you places. Sit tight and write. Your heart can make space for letting go.
I'm still finding a way, but one tip that might work just as it works for me.
Read your content ALOUD. You will feel the editor in you flinching and asking for change.
Writing is an expression of change, Dear Reader. Don't let it just be. Flow with the flow.
