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PaperclipPerfector  11mo ago (text post)   3337 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for October 6, 2024

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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If anyone here writes professionally or semi-professionally, in any domain, I'd love to hear your process around daily drafting and editing.

I've start to build a content base for a blog (details of which I will not be sharing so that I don't doxx myself, sorry). I can draft out 1,000 words a day consistently. Editing it is probably a 2-3x time commitment over the rough drafting. I don't feel like I have a real "process" however. It's kind of just - write a thing. Re-write a little until I have a solid structure. Edit for clarity, tighter sentences, that kind of thing. Should I have more?

Been writing (professionally, freelance, hobby, semi-sordid erotica under a pseudonym…) for 25+ years.

My approach is:

  1. write the thing
  2. take account of how writing the thing feels (if it feels flowy, it’s much more likely to be good)
  3. edit the thing (this can be just a single run through for a short piece, or for a longer or more consequential piece, printing out the whole thing, laying it in sheets on the floor and taking a red pen to anything that seems out of place or which doesn’t add to the forward momentum)
  4. leave it a while (at least a night)
  5. read the thing (if it emotionally stirs me or moves me to read it, it has a decent chance of being good, or at least as good as I can make it)

After that, having the courage, tenacity and organisational chops to get it out into the world and into the hands of the best person/people you can find to read it is a whole other set of skills.

If your aspirations are for maximum excellence in writing and editing, I recommend Draft No. 4 by John McPhee.

Draft No. 4 by John McPhee

Than you. Amazon'ed.

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