Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.

—Mark Twain

Here's where we start to make TUFD less U.

Take TUFD from yesterday.

Read it through your head. Feel it in your hands.

Start to help it become a better version of itself.

Revisiting a first draft to rework and rewrite it doesn't sound like much fun, does it? It sounds like drudgery. Tedium. Like alphabetizing canned goods.

But it's not really, because there's a kind of freedom in it.

You've already done the hard part of setting down the words. Now comes the easier (and less anxiety-inducing) part of distilling the text's essence—or, crossing out the wrong words and the unnecessary words, and subbing in better ones.

Revising is my favorite part of writing—because it's when we start to have some fun. To me, the first draft feels more like pure ball-and-chain hard work. The editing is where we get to make some merry.

I'm not talking here about having someone else edit your work, by the way. That comes later.

First, you need to take a first pass at editing and shaping your own work.

There are two approaches to self-editing:

1. Developmental editing, which I call editing by chainsaw. It's where you look at the big picture.
2. Line editing, which I call editing by surgical tools. It's where you look at paragraph and sentence flow, word choice, usage, and so on.

I like to use both on the same piece: first, one … and then, the other.

Editing by chainsaw. First, ignore the grammar and specific words you've used. Focus on the bigger stuff.

• Key idea. Is the main point there? Is it clear? And right up front?

  You might've gotten bogged down by setting up an idea with too much introductory explanation instead of just getting right into it. (See Chapter 16.)

  Did you? Remove that throat-clearing introductory text, whittle it down, or set it aside to use elsewhere.

• Pay special attention to the opening. Your first few sentences are crucial; they invite the reader in. (See Chapter 19.)
• What can you cut from the team this week? What doesn't support your main point or further your argument?

  What's a distraction? What's indulgent? What feels too precious, like you're trying too hard? Nurse … Scalpel! Cut it.*

• Make every paragraph earn its keep. Does every paragraph contain an idea that the one before or after it doesn't? Or is it paraphrasing what it heard another paragraph say already?

  Are the paragraphs more like Frankenparagraphs—made up of disconnected sentences bolted awkwardly together, creating a scary mess? The sentences should build on one another, furthering a single idea and creating a whole.

• Make every sentence earn its keep. Apply the same standard you applied to paragraphs: Does it bring something unique to the table? Or does it simply restate what its buddy before it already said? I call these Parrot Sentences.

  If you see a Parrot Sentence perched in your own paragraph: Cut it. Shoo it away. Be ruthless.

• Adopt a less-is-more mindset. Many writers take too long to get to the point; they use too many words.

  Don't be that person.

• Logic. Does it flow? What do you need to move around to help the flow?

  Think of the sentences in a paragraph as a conversation between an elderly, companionable couple. They don't talk over each other; they expand on what the other says.

• What’s missing? Do you have data? A point of view? What information would make your piece feel comprehensive? Fair? Real? True?

Editing with surgical tools. Next, turn off the chainsaw. Pick up your surgical instruments.

• Trim the bloat and fat. Are you potentially using far too many words to say something you perhaps could say more concisely?
• Shed the obvious. There's no need to include in this article, in this post, in regard to, I've always felt that, we are of the opinion that… . Bag up those obvious phrases. Set them on the curb for trash pickup.
• Lose Frankenwords, word additives, clichés, and words pretending to be something they're not. (See Chapters 33 and 34.)
• Trim word bloat. Sub in single words for fat phrases.

• A few samples:
• despite the fact that > although
• when it comes to > when, in
• there will be times when > when, at times
• continues to be > remains
• in regard to > about, regarding

• Ditch adverbs unless they are necessary to adjust the meaning. (Chapter 39.)
• Use the present verb tense as much as you can. Ditch weakling verbs in favor of stronger, ripped ones. (Chapters 36 and 38.)
• Create transitions between paragraphs. The best writing flows from paragraph to paragraph, creating momentum.

  Good transitions are like fine stitching: You don't see the transitions; they don't stop your eye. Instead, they stitch writing into a seamless whole. They improve the vibe and reader-friendliness of any work.

• Draw natural connections between paragraphs. Again, don't rely on clunky high school transitions like however, thus, therefore, and so on. Instead, pick up an idea from the previous paragraph and connect it to an idea in the next paragraph.
• Am I painting clear images and using fresh analogies? Or am I relying on clichés, stereotypes, bromides? (Chapter 40.)

* * *

Did you notice that I just wrote 700 words on editing but didn't once mention grammar?

That's not because grammar isn't important. It is, as we'll talk about in Part II. But writers tend to equate editing with fixing the grammar, when it's so much more than that.