Ah, ’tis springtime. That means I’ve got to do a little shrub pruning. The whole concept of pruning got me thinking about the editing process. Bear with me here on my analogy.

Careful pruning stimulates growth and the overall health of a shrub. Editing your writing does the same thing, I swear. Every time I edit something I’ve written, I learn a valuable lessen in tightening and polishing that I take with me the next time a write something and subsequently edit and revise it.

What do I mean by tightening? In our first, second and third drafts, we can all stand to get rid of unnecessary words, replace passive verbs with active language and banish redundancy. When we tighten our work, we reveal the true nature of what we are trying to say, and the entire piece blossoms.

Over my next few posts, I will discuss specific tips for tightening and revising. Stay tuned.