This week, a request from Samantha, founder of Humankind Candles, came across my desk to write about how I edit. Perfect timing, too, since I’ve been thinking about the mysterious life of the editor. Maybe I'm blind and just not following many, but I don't see many editors in our space talking about their process. Or perhaps they're not sure it would be interesting enough; who knows? If you're an editor, I'd love to be in a group chat with you!!

At the moment, I’m editing a new book for Greenpill and EIC03 for ETH Investors Club as Editor-in-Chief. If you have a story for us, feel free to send it my way!

Don’t forget to check out my latest writing on t2world for Lens, Questing into a New Experience Economy.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a new editor role, check out the ASME job board.

I went on a little hunt recently through Reddit, Spotify, and YouTube to try and track down the latest gossip and struggles editors face these days. There are actually a couple of decent podcasts, like The Editor’s Half Hour and another favorite, Print Is Dead (Long Live Print); check out this episode with American Society of Magazine Editors Hall-of-Famer Tina Brown. I also like this book called Write Articles About the World Around You. The r/writers, r/freelanceeditors, and r/copyediting subreddits have some decent conversations going on if you can deal with venturing over to Reddit.

I've been a longtime fan of David Perell’s podcast How I Write. One of my favorite episodes is the one with Kevin Kelly. Maybe someone should start a show called How I Edit…

I haven’t always been the best at this job. Honestly, it took a lot of pain, effort, and stress-induced bouts of crying trying to meet deadlines. When I was editor of my high school monthly newspaper, managing teenage writers, that was the worst of it—breaking up shouting matches in an open-door room about stories to feature, mending friend breakups, calming writers who couldn’t figure out how to get an interview, pages filled with red ink spilling over the sides. Everything was better at the end of the month when we took to print. Later, I got to see huge smiles on those same writers and saw a byline with their names. Today, that kind of thing seems to be taken for granted, with online media churning out content at wild rates.

My timeline for writing and editing a substantial essay or article typically looks like this:

I’ve been known to write super quickly as a journalist. I like at least a week or two of complete obsessive research. This is enough time to put my head in the right space for a coherent opinion. Usually, it takes around 2-4 hours to write, and then I let it simmer (while celebrating, of course). Since I don't believe in editing or thinking much at all while writing, all that happens the next day when possible.

Sitting down for an editing session, I take a quick pass with Grammarly, though I do not use the other AI writing features Grammarly offers. Not too much happens here, but it's a decent gut check. With some whimsical lo-fi in my headphones, the hyper-focus begins.

Though I struggle with dyslexia, one of the strengths of a natural editor is the ability to know what sounds correct by placing yourself in the right headspace. Many years of experience don’t hurt either. Beyond being “correct,” which is simply a symptom of knowing grammar rules, style, and structure, it’s often more of a third thing.

What I like to do is put myself not in my mind as the reader but in the perspective of several different types of readers. By gaining this particular perspective each time, I can better adjust certain language and balance out technical terms with context clues rather than having to explain every concept in excruciating detail.

I go through this same process when editing another writer's work, with an added layer. Now, since I already have these personas in my mind, I add the author’s perspective as well. I search their profiles and go through any chat logs to get a feel for their personality if I don't already know them. Any edge I can get in making sure this writer is presenting themselves and their story as accurately and authentically as possible is best.

I believe this is one of the edges that editor types have. This also applies to marketing, community building, and being a founder. Again, this is where it helps to have true understanding. When you understand yourself, you can better understand others, and that includes how they write. I guess this is where Tina Brown might have a rebuttal about keeping the thing a job and not some sacred calling, and while I agree with her, it is a job, and one must be scrappy with things, there is some intrinsic feeling-making to this editing stuff.

Beyond that instinctual skill, I make sure that each essay, story, or excerpt has what David Perell calls POP. You can listen to him talk about it here. For David, POP stands for Personal, Observational, and Playful. Finding these bits makes a piece of writing more relatable, helping the reader find themselves in the story, especially when you’re editing a trendy piece that people want to plop their lives into.

When editing, I give suggestions off to the side rather than making corrections myself. I like the Suggesting mode on Google Docs, where a writer can more easily learn how to make future adjustments to their style.

One little quirky thing about how I edit is that, for me, the interface matters. I love writing in Notion, but I hate writing in Google Docs. I will happily edit in Google Docs, though… idk take it or leave it from the girl who has used all the writing interfaces under the sun besides a typewriter, from Corel Draw to Quark Express, and InDesign to MS Word, Google Docs, Notion, and all kinds of others; maybe I’m just getting older. I’m allowed to have preferences!

These are just a few bits of my editing process. I’m sure I’ll think of more to sprinkle into other pieces of this blog series.

Follow me on Twitter, Warpcast, and Orb

This week, a request from Samantha, founder of Humankind Candles, came across my desk to write about how I edit. Perfect timing, too, since I’ve been thinking about the mysterious life of the editor. Maybe I'm blind and just not following many, but I don't see many editors in our space talking about their process. Or perhaps they're not sure it would be interesting enough; who knows? If you're an editor, I'd love to be in a group chat with you!!

At the moment, I’m editing a new book for Greenpill and EIC03 for ETH Investors Club as Editor-in-Chief. If you have a story for us, feel free to send it my way!

Don’t forget to check out my latest writing on t2world for Lens, Questing into a New Experience Economy.

Oh, and if you’re looking for a new editor role, check out the ASME job board.

I went on a little hunt recently through Reddit, Spotify, and YouTube to try and track down the latest gossip and struggles editors face these days. There are actually a couple of decent podcasts, like The Editor’s Half Hour and another favorite, Print Is Dead (Long Live Print); check out this episode with American Society of Magazine Editors Hall-of-Famer Tina Brown. I also like this book called Write Articles About the World Around You. The r/writers, r/freelanceeditors, and r/copyediting subreddits have some decent conversations going on if you can deal with venturing over to Reddit.

I've been a longtime fan of David Perell’s podcast How I Write. One of my favorite episodes is the one with Kevin Kelly. Maybe someone should start a show called How I Edit…

I haven’t always been the best at this job. Honestly, it took a lot of pain, effort, and stress-induced bouts of crying trying to meet deadlines. When I was editor of my high school monthly newspaper, managing teenage writers, that was the worst of it—breaking up shouting matches in an open-door room about stories to feature, mending friend breakups, calming writers who couldn’t figure out how to get an interview, pages filled with red ink spilling over the sides. Everything was better at the end of the month when we took to print. Later, I got to see huge smiles on those same writers and saw a byline with their names. Today, that kind of thing seems to be taken for granted, with online media churning out content at wild rates.

My timeline for writing and editing a substantial essay or article typically looks like this:

I’ve been known to write super quickly as a journalist. I like at least a week or two of complete obsessive research. This is enough time to put my head in the right space for a coherent opinion. Usually, it takes around 2-4 hours to write, and then I let it simmer (while celebrating, of course). Since I don't believe in editing or thinking much at all while writing, all that happens the next day when possible.

Sitting down for an editing session, I take a quick pass with Grammarly, though I do not use the other AI writing features Grammarly offers. Not too much happens here, but it's a decent gut check. With some whimsical lo-fi in my headphones, the hyper-focus begins.

Though I struggle with dyslexia, one of the strengths of a natural editor is the ability to know what sounds correct by placing yourself in the right headspace. Many years of experience don’t hurt either. Beyond being “correct,” which is simply a symptom of knowing grammar rules, style, and structure, it’s often more of a third thing.

What I like to do is put myself not in my mind as the reader but in the perspective of several different types of readers. By gaining this particular perspective each time, I can better adjust certain language and balance out technical terms with context clues rather than having to explain every concept in excruciating detail.

I go through this same process when editing another writer's work, with an added layer. Now, since I already have these personas in my mind, I add the author’s perspective as well. I search their profiles and go through any chat logs to get a feel for their personality if I don't already know them. Any edge I can get in making sure this writer is presenting themselves and their story as accurately and authentically as possible is best.

I believe this is one of the edges that editor types have. This also applies to marketing, community building, and being a founder. Again, this is where it helps to have true understanding. When you understand yourself, you can better understand others, and that includes how they write. I guess this is where Tina Brown might have a rebuttal about keeping the thing a job and not some sacred calling, and while I agree with her, it is a job, and one must be scrappy with things, there is some intrinsic feeling-making to this editing stuff.

Beyond that instinctual skill, I make sure that each essay, story, or excerpt has what David Perell calls POP. You can listen to him talk about it here. For David, POP stands for Personal, Observational, and Playful. Finding these bits makes a piece of writing more relatable, helping the reader find themselves in the story, especially when you’re editing a trendy piece that people want to plop their lives into.

When editing, I give suggestions off to the side rather than making corrections myself. I like the Suggesting mode on Google Docs, where a writer can more easily learn how to make future adjustments to their style.

One little quirky thing about how I edit is that, for me, the interface matters. I love writing in Notion, but I hate writing in Google Docs. I will happily edit in Google Docs, though… idk take it or leave it from the girl who has used all the writing interfaces under the sun besides a typewriter, from Corel Draw to Quark Express, and InDesign to MS Word, Google Docs, Notion, and all kinds of others; maybe I’m just getting older. I’m allowed to have preferences!

These are just a few bits of my editing process. I’m sure I’ll think of more to sprinkle into other pieces of this blog series.

Follow me on Twitter, Warpcast, and Orb