Self-Editing Your First Draft Without Any Fear

Self-editing works when you stop treating the first draft as precious. A draft is raw material, and raw material is meant to be cut.

I used to defend every sentence I wrote. The moment I started asking 'would the reader miss this', the editing got easier and the copy got better.

Write and edit on different days

The mind that writes wants to keep everything. The mind that edits wants to cut. Do not let them argue in the same hour.

Finish the draft, close the file, and come back when the attachment has cooled. You will see problems that were invisible while you were still in love with them.

• Finish the full draft before you fix a single line.
• Sleep on it; distance makes cutting easier.
• Read the draft once without a pen.
• Decide what the piece is about before you trim it.
• Let the second draft carry the weight of the first.

Cut the parts you love most

The lines you are proudest of are often the ones holding the piece back. They shine so bright the reader misses the point behind them.

Save them in a spare file if letting go hurts. You can reuse them where they fit. Most of the time you will not want to.

A first draft is a rough guess at the truth. Editing is the argument you have with it.

Rewrite before you polish

Changing commas in a draft that may lose a whole section wastes your time. Fix the shape first.

Only when the structure holds do you fuss over word choice. Polishing a weak draft makes weak copy look tidy, and tidy is not the same as good.

Key takeaways

• Separate writing time from editing time.
• Let the draft cool before you judge it.
• Cut the lines you are proudest of if they distract.
• Fix the structure before the punctuation.
• Treat the second draft as the real start.