10 Unusual But Critical Edit Checks Before You Hit Publish
Induce Insatiable Curiosity With Each Sentence
A good story is more than good structure, grammar and spelling. Does it keep your reader interested? Do they feel compelled to continue to the end? It’s difficult for us to judge ourselves. We’re too close to it.
I come from a background in copywriting. The goal of the copywriter is to sell. To do that, you must keep your reader interested until the end.
Before I put the finishing touches on copy I go through a checklist. Many of the items echo what you find in a traditional writing checklist. Use active voice instead of passive. Pacing. Limit adverbs. These are important concepts. I will not cover those here.
In this list, all the items focus on a single theme.
Each sentence has one goal — Compel the reader to the next sentence.
These checklist items fall under one of four categories:
Curiosity — Anticipation about what comes next.
Simplicity — Break down complexity into simplicity.
Conversational — Picture yourself talking with a friend at a bar or coffee shop. Read in to that a bit deeper. It also means treating your reader with a level of respect equal to a friend. Checklist items five and seven touch on this.
Clarity — Must he read it a few times to understand the meaning? Is the meaning ambiguous? The first item falls under this category.
1. Read Your Piece Out Loud. Where Do You Stumble?
Do you find yourself reading sentences twice? Simplify it. Do you pause or stumble with words? Rewrite. Does the writing confuse you? Rewrite it for clarity.
2. Eliminate Weasel Words
Weasel words undermine your authority. They make you sound weak, unsure. They detract from clarity. Despite the downside, there are times I use them. Test your statement without it. Judge which makes more sense given the context.
Here is a small sample.
- Conventional wisdom states
- Actually
- I think
- It is known that
- It Stands To Reason
3. Do The Subheads Foreshadow Or Summarize?
Subheads should always give your reader a hint at what’s to come. Never use subheads to summarize previous writing. The goal of every sentence is to compel your reader to the next sentence. A subhead that foreshadows creates anticipation. You want to know what comes next. A subhead that summarizes kills curiosity.
4. Beware Of Condescending Or Patronizing Remarks
The meanings are similar but slightly different. Patronizing means treating with an apparent kindness that betrays a feeling of superiority. It’s often unintentional. Condescending is intentional. It’s okay to present yourself as an expert. Presenting yourself as superior rubs people the wrong way. A mentor once taught me this simple rule. Never state your expertise. Demonstrate it.
5. Save The Punchline For The End
How funny would a joke be if you heard the punchline first? It would ruin the joke, right? The same is true for your story. Don’t give away the ending until the end. Further, end your story at the end. This is especially important if you use your writing for sales or email list building. End your story at the moment you give up the punchline. That’s where they usually stop reading.
6. Does It Tell The Reader What To Believe Or Does It Lead Them To Conclude?
Don’t you love it when a writer tries to jam an opinion down your throat? That heavy-handed approach may work if your reader already agrees with you. If she doesn’t, your approach backfires. Remember golden rule number one of persuasion.
A reader never doubts a conclusion they deduce on their own.. Telling them what to believe invites resistance.
Think of it this way. Remember the game connect-the-dots from childhood? Connect all the dots for your reader, except the last one.
7. Would Someone Who Knows Little About ___ Understand What I Wrote?
Beware of using terms and lingo your audience will not understand. Nobody will look it up. They’ll just move on. In today’s business content this problem reaches epidemic levels.
Organizations abuse internal lingo when writing blog posts or articles. Outsiders lack understanding of this internal verbiage. If you must use secretive lingo, explain it.
8. The Knowledge You Discount May Be Important To Your Reader
What are you leaving out that might be valuable to your reader? There are interesting stories you know that may have lost some of their magic. Maybe you’re sick of telling it.
Try looking at it from the perspective of your reader. Stories and news that sound old to you might be fresh and exciting to your reader.
This is an opportunity to add in something interesting.
9. Create Labels For New Or Complex Concepts
There’s a popular theory that we remember bizarre experiences more than common ones. In one story, I used the term crayon effect to label this phenomenon. It came from an experience of using a crayon to sign a credit card bill. The label acts as a wrapper for the concept. Bonus points if you dream up a clever metaphor to explain your concept.
10. Does It Focus On One Big Idea?
Each piece should focus on one big idea. Adding multiple big ideas creates confusion. It dilutes the message of both. If you have multiple big ideas, separate them into their own stories. For example, this post is about a post-writing checklist. If I also included a pre-writing checklist it would dilute the power of both.
This Works Under One Condition
Avoid Multitasking. Take the single lens approach.
Each time you read your piece focus on one checklist item. In your first pass, read your copy out loud. See where you stumble. On your second pass, move to the second checklist item. With each pass, look at your piece through a different lens.
Before You Go…
My entire checklist is available for you here. Plus, you’ll get my bullet writing and creativity guide.
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