Why Editing Is the Secret to Excellent Copy

How much attention do you pay to the editing part of your copywriting?

Hopefully a lot — because without strong editing, even the best ideas fall flat.

Here’s how subtracting words can add greater impact to your message.

What Oscar Winners Teach Us About the Best Creative Work

Think about the importance of editing this way:

• What if a photographer shared only raw, unedited images?
• What if a designer never refined their first draft?
• What if a filmmaker released a movie exactly as it was shot, scene by scene, no cutting-room floor?

The result would be chaotic at best… unwatchable at worst.

In his book Essentialism, Greg McKeown highlights a powerful insight:

While the exact statistics may have shifted over time, the principle remains:

Editing is not an afterthought to winning creative work. It’s the differentiator.

It’s what transforms something good into something unforgettable.

How to Take a Curated Approach to Your Copy (And Life)

McKeown also references Jack Dorsey, who once described his “CEO” role at Twitter as “chief editorial officer.”

These men are referring to taking a curated approach to your business and life in general. Naturally, we can’t help applying it to copywriting.

How can you edit your copy so it feels curated, not careless? 

Usually, you’ll need to subtract words, not add them. More on that in a sec.

The Three Types of Creative Work

One more nugget from McKeown on this topic. He outlines the three kinds of work posed by Aristotle:

1. Theoretical work (end goal: truth)
2. Practical work (end goal: action)
3. Poietical work (end goal: a “bringing-forth”)

…To which he says:

As creatives, we tend to live in the poietical world.

So, tell me: what can you remove from your copy, in order to bring forth more to your message?

The Secret to Stronger Copy: Subtract, Don’t Add

When most people revise their writing, they add:

• They add explanations.
• They add adjectives.
• They add justification.

But powerful editing usually requires you to subtract:

• Subtract filler phrases.
• Subtract redundant ideas.
• Subtract words that soften your authority.
• Subtract sentences that don’t move the message forward.

How to Make More Impact by Writing Less Copy

If you want your copywriting (or your marketing in general) to stand out, don’t just focus on what you create.

Focus on what you remove.

As you’re revising your copy, ask yourself:

• What can I remove that doesn’t serve the goal?
• What sentence is repeating what I already said?
• Where can I make this sharper, cleaner, more direct?

The magic of a great piece of copy, or any creative work, isn’t in the first draft.

It’s in the edit.