I’m pretty critical of people’s work – starting with my own. In film school, I realized I wasn’t going to meet my own high standards of great filmmaking, so I knew early on I wouldn’t pursue it professionally. You can call this defeatist if you’d like; I prefer to see it as being acutely realistic. Having that self-awareness took me on a different career path that’s been eminently rewarding.
So you could say that from an early age, I was editing myself. I still strive to apply good editing to my work – writing a blog has challenged me big time, believe me – and I’m hoping more content creators will also take heed, because a lot of work out there could use the equivalent of the proverbial red pen.
Good editing is more than just cutting out the chaff, but run-on content runs rampant these days, so that’s the focus here. As Thomas Jefferson said, “The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.”
Editing is a subjective art. Let it not be said that, like the Emperor in Amadeus, you or I deign to tell Mozart his ballet has “too many notes.” The editing buck should stop with the creator. But oftentimes the creator doesn’t have the objectivity to do right by his own work. Hence the reason that there are so many genuinely good movies, novels, speeches, blog entries, PowerPoint presentations and the like in circulation today that would be even better if their length were curtailed by 10-20 percent.
Affordable tools and infinite distribution have enabled us to be 24/7 creators. Want your work to rise above the rabble? Be its harshest critic. Review it with an unwavering eye, and edit it more than once. Like removing the clutter from your home before you sell it, it may feel a little funny at first, but in the long run you’ll be the better for it.
A couple of suggestions to exercise your brevity muscles: Twitter; some writing tips from Copyblogger; the blog Just Five Words and Tara Parker-Pope’s Seven Word Story contest in the New York Times.
Just Five Words: I’m done – word count, anyone?
