Comments on: When Editing No Longer Helps

By: kishau (Kishau Rogers)

kishau (Kishau Rogers) — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 21:48:10 +0000

Twitter Comment

Great advice on editing your work - When to stop making changes. [link to post]

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By: kmatthews (Kelli Matthews)

kmatthews (Kelli Matthews) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 16:33:51 +0000

Twitter Comment

I've been on both sides of over-editing: [link to post] (via @davefleet)

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By: abarcelos (Anna Barcelos)

abarcelos (Anna Barcelos) — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:56:11 +0000

Twitter Comment

Great post re: overcoming OCED (obsessive compulsive editing disorder ) fr/MarketingProfs [link to post]

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By: Talayah Stovall

Talayah Stovall — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 15:37:48 +0000

Dave, great email. I am experiencing the paralysis of analysis with getting my first newsletter out. I have a mailing list of 10,000 and I’m trying to make it perfect so that no one unsubscribes! But, I’m making it later and later in the month because I’m trying to make it perfect. Thanks for the kick in the pants!

By: Tay Exley

Tay Exley — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 20:49:12 +0000

I’m currently studying Editing in College so I found this article extremely helpful. I just finished grad school and I know that over-editing is one of my major problems. It’s hard though when you have so many professors saying that the writing should only take 20% of your time and the editing 80%. How do you keep everything in perspective with that? I’m hoping some of this develops when you’re no longer connected with the work (at least in any authorial fashion).

By: Linda Forrest

Linda Forrest — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:24:04 +0000

Thanks, Dave. We just proved my very point!

By: Editors are important, part 39 « My Point Exactly

Editors are important, part 39 « My Point Exactly — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 20:10:03 +0000

[...] folks who don’t know when to stop editing can get into trouble. Dave Fleet at davefleet.com offers signs that that you should stop editing already. Key quote: There’s no hard and fast rule, but these [...]

By: Dave Fleet

Dave Fleet — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:44:13 +0000

Linda – because I’m such a nice guy (!) I fixed the HTML for you

By: Linda Forrest

Linda Forrest — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:12:38 +0000

See, an editor would have caught my html problem leading into the final paragraph of my comment!

By: Linda Forrest

Linda Forrest — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:11:01 +0000

It's funny, this is one of the principle common challenges that I faced both in my former life in the music business and in my current role as a PR consultant for tech companies - when to leave well enough alone. In the studio, a band can tinker and, thanks to the wonder of multi-track recording, add layer upon layer onto a song. A guitar riff can be recorded and erased and recorded ad nauseum (see Guns N Roses' Chinese Democracy for an example of just how long the editing process can be drawn out!) It's the role of the producer to say "when." While we're big believers in the fact that everyone needs an editor , it's good to have a set of guidelines as you've suggested above by which to govern your editing, to ensure that it's not a "make work" proposition and is truly enhancing the finished product. In our experience , the more cooks in the kitchen or the bigger the organization, the more daunting and protracted the editing and approvals process can be. By presenting clients with the proviso when leading into the editing process that they are to review materials for technical accuracy rather than for writing style (everyone on earth when given the same raw material will write something different for the finished product), we've found that this helps alleviate the thesaurus and minor wording problems you've mentioned above. They've hired us for our expertise as writers and communicators; as such, they should feel comfortable in leaving the brunt of the language used and materials written in our capable hands.