I watch an unreasonable amount of YouTube videos about how to clean a bathroom. Not clean my bathroom, that would be productive. I watch other people clean bathrooms. I study their techniques. I admire their product recommendations. I absorb their satisfaction at a gleaming tile.
Then I do nothing. My bathroom remains exactly as it was.
(Perhaps you see where this is going.)
Writers do the same thing with editing advice. We read about editing. We bookmark editing tips. We feel productive having learned about editing. And then we open our drafts and… don’t implement any of it. The bathroom stays dirty.
The Emotional Truth
Editing is the bathroom nobody wants to clean but everyone wants to be clean. We want the polished result. We don’t want the elbow grease. And editing advice, like cleaning hacks, gives us the feeling of progress without the actual work.
Fair enough. Let me make the work feel less like work.
10 Editing Moves That Actually Change Things
1. Crown Yourself Editor-in-Chief
Editor-in-Chief (noun): a person who assumes complete responsibility for, and ownership of, every word they release into the world.
You’re not just a writer. You’re the last line of defense between your ideas and your audience. Act like it.
2. Warm Up Before You Edit
You wouldn’t sprint without stretching. Don’t edit cold. Read something that inspires you. Study the structure of a song lyric. Write something playful and unrelated. Get your brain into shaping mode, not just reading mode.
3. Bond Over a Shared Worldview
Your post isn’t just information, it’s a perspective. Editing is your chance to extract your unique angle and shine a spotlight on it. Rearrange. Cut tangents. Add bullets. Break a long post into a series. Sometimes writing less is the most generous thing you can do for your reader.
4. Keep One Ear Open
The best editing insights come from outside your draft. A phrase you overhear at a coffee shop. A metaphor buried in a novel. A line from a podcast that reframes your entire argument. Stay receptive. Then smuggle those discoveries into your revision.
5. Interrogate Your Own Draft
After you’ve stepped away (and you should step away), return with questions, not answers:
- Does this introduction give the reader a reason to stay?
- Is there more hype than substance?
- Can I say this more simply?
6. Add Carbonation
Flat writing reads like this paragraph is reading: every sentence the same length, every opener the same structure. Sparkling writing varies its rhythms. It starts paragraphs differently. It surprises. Look at your draft’s paragraph openers, if five out of eight begin with “You can…” or “Make sure…”, you’ve got flat water. Add fizz.
7. Carry an Umbrella
We all get wordy. The best writers get wordy and then cut. Your umbrella is the willingness to trim sections that don’t serve the reader. Save the cuts, they’re often perfect starters for future posts.
8. Complete a Revision Triangle
Edit in the text editor. Proofread in the text editor. Proofread again in preview mode. Three sides. Three passes. Each one catches what the others missed.
9. Read Backward
I once typed “learn” instead of “clean,” “person” instead of “perhaps,” and “always” instead of “also”, all in the same draft. Those errors would have yanked readers right out of the experience. Proofread from the end to the beginning, slowly, one word at a time. Proofreading is not reading. It’s inspection.
10. Check What Others Skip
Attribute quotes accurately. Verify company and product names. Fact-check dates and days of the week. Re-read your hyperlinked text with extra care. The details that seem trivial are the ones that erode trust when they’re wrong.
30 More. Shorter. Use Them All.
11. Fall in love with your website. If you’re not impressed, no one else will be.
12. Check your “web furniture”, headshot, logo, layout. Does it welcome or repel?
13. Your About page is as much about your reader as it is about you.
14. Give people a clear reason to subscribe. Then remind them.
15. Choose media thoughtfully. Stock photos can be strategic or they can scream “I gave up.”
16. Don’t adopt a tool, style, or platform unless it serves your reader.
17. Display certifications, testimonials, badges. Let others vouch for your expertise.
18. Secure your hosting. A slow or compromised site undermines everything you build.
19. When someone lands on your site, what do you want them to do? Say it plainly.
20. Skip the “yes men.” Get professional feedback, not friendly approval.
21. Every edit should serve your goal. If it doesn’t, it’s dead weight.
22. Prepare; don’t plan. Build an editorial calendar flexible enough to capture unexpected ideas.
23. Take yourself out of the equation. Focus on helping, not impressing.
24. Use sensible SEO. Find the keywords your readers actually search for. Use them.
25. Educate and entertain in equal measure. One without the other is medicine or comedy, neither is content.
26. If you’re bored with your topics, your readers left three posts ago. Switch it up.
27. Look for connections between new ideas and published content. Link back. Deepen the archive.
28. One powerful post per week beats five mediocre ones.
29. Balance your passions with your audience’s problems. That intersection is your sweet spot.
30. Block distractions during writing sessions. Respect your own work enough to focus.
31. Do your descriptions convey a precise message? “Fat Ass Fudge” says it all. Do you?
32. If you truly serve a niche, you will exclude another group. That’s not a bug, it’s the feature.
33. Use concise language in names, taglines, and headlines. Differentiate clearly.
34. Outline your main points before you write. Flesh out the details in the writing.
35. Write one compelling line. Then another. Stress about the whole post later.
36. Grammar isn’t glamorous, but losing readers because they can’t understand you is less glamorous.
37. Don’t write “effect” when you mean “affect.” Don’t pretend you know which one you mean.
38. Examine each letter in your final read-through. Slow inspection catches what speed misses.
39. Write in multiple rounds. Planned breaks aren’t procrastination, they’re strategy.
40. Regard everything as practice. Be proud of what you’ve done. Be relentless about getting better.
The Bathroom
My bathroom is clean now. I finally stopped watching and started scrubbing.
Your draft is waiting for the same thing. Not another article about editing. The actual edit. Open the document. Start with one pass. Then another. The polish isn’t in the knowing, it’s in the doing.