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Write Less, Edit More, Get Read
If there is a lesson in journalism for you, it would be that the quickest way for inexperienced writers to improve is mastering the art of rewriting
“Write less, edit more, then edit again… submit fewer pieces, submit only polished work… then you become a writer who gets read”
This was written in chalk on the front board in a writing class I once took and this old school wisdom described what it takes to be a professional writer more clearly than any advice I ever received.
My writing career began as a small-town newspaper journalist, which is a grandiose way to say we wrote everything from the local city council news and high school sports to obituaries.
The paper was a daily serving a small Midwest town. Working on a newspaper that had to be filled every day forced you to write quickly, under the constant pressure of a deadline, and our editor always drove us to use the least amount of words you could to get the story across to the reader. If you succeeded, you kept your job, and the $250 per week it earned you as an entry-level beat writer working sixty hours per week.
Journalism teaches you to write cleanly and quickly, but once submitted, your work is sent to an editor that rewrites, a…
