Writers rarely spit out their best copy on the first draft. If you meet a writer who claims to have the secret for doing so, please let the rest of us know!

First drafts — and second drafts and sometimes thirds — exist to hash your ideas out on paper. After you’ve revised your book, story, blog post or article until you can revise no more, you just hand it off to your editor to clean up, right?

Not so fast, says Stephen King. He has his own ideas on editing that I’d like to share with you.

One more piece of advice from another Stephen, Stephen Sondheim:

Get it Down First

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Author: Dennis Hickey

Welcome to the Learning Center. I’m Dennis, your tutor. tutoringyou.org is a lifelong learning Library helping people improve their English literacy, learning skills, practical knowledge, personal growth, and everyday understanding of the world. Learn something useful, interesting, or enriching every time you visit. View all posts by Dennis Hickey

One thought on “Stephen King’s Editing Advice”

So true about slaying the little darlings because those words came from us, so they are like our children. Best, as he also says, to wait until the work is done before the rewriting starts. Usually, the work ends up better for the edits.

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