Cutting
Less is often more in writing: you should be ruthless about cutting out
irrelevant words, sentences and phrases. Look at every word to see what
function it is really fulfilling, though that function does not always have to
be strictly semantic; it may be sonic or visual. Cutting—like all editing
strategies—must be related to the writing style you are adopting: some
styles are more florid than others. Some writers, like Gertrude Stein, have
used repetition and redundancy to remarkable effect. However, over-
writing and over-explaining are errors that writers tend to make, even
when they are very experienced.
Amplification
This involves expanding, developing or highlighting an interesting idea
which is scantily treated in the first instance. In Chapter 2 amplification
was introduced as a strategy for building up a passage, but it can be used
at any stage of the writing process.
As you write and edit you will probably find that you are constantly jug-
gling between cutting and amplification. Knowing how much to put in, and
how much to leave out, is a very subtle aspect of writing and one to which
there are no hard and fast answers. You may find yourself sometimes being
more explicit, sometimes less explicit, in different types of work.
Substitution
Finding alternatives (sometimes synonyms) for weak words and phrases is
a major task in editing. We sometimes put words on the page because we
cannot think of any others, and this is fine in the early stages. But it is then
easy to leave the words, and to become so familiar with them that they
become acceptable by default. When we edit we must try to become more
critical again, and in such cases find substitute words which are linguisti-
cally stronger. Again substitution was a strategy we started to use as early
as Chapter 1.
Concretising and abstracting
In some types of writing, for example descriptive writing, it may be impor-
tant to substitute concrete imagery for abstractions, to give a more
immediate and vivid impression. This can also help to create a context for
your work (for example, give a strong sense of location). In some of the
more experimental types of writing, however, you may want to make
Conclusion: The ongoing editor 279