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Showing posts from February, 2011

Editing and Your Teeth

That title seems horribly incongruous. Yet, I mean every word of it. Let me start this post by asking you a question: Can editing really be your friend? Let me ask a second question: Is editing really necessary? Well, here's another question to think about while you ponder the veracity of the first two: Does the sun rise every morning? The answer to the third question is the answer to the other two as well. Yes. You must edit. You must go back and get rid of the excess. You must face the daunting task of wiping away scores of words from your computer -- the very words that fill your heart with joy. You MUST do this because those superfluous words do nothing for the story. As in, they are only there because it sounds good. Sounding good is really not good, in the literary world. Because most of the time when you think you sound good, you sound like a prolific seal, barking up a storm over nothing. And that, my friends, is no good. Good writing comes from knowing how to ed