An Idiot's Guide to Line Editing

Preface -- A terrible admission of idiocy

Hey!

I write a lot of fiction. Some people even like some of it! And one thing that makes me a weirdo in this whole writing process is that I love line editing. I'm not perfect at it, but I love it. And because I love it, I wanna get better at it.

There's a trick that Richard Feynman used to use when he wanted to learn something. Who's Richard Feynman? Oh, he's just, you know, a guy who had a Nobel prize for discovering a load of the most important bits of science ever, that's who. His technique for learning was simple. First; read about it. Easy! Go and buy a book or watch a video or whatever works for you. Step one, done! Now, step two you must teach it to someone.

Wait, what?

Yes, that's right. The idea here is that you explain what you've learnt to someone else. And ideally, it's a real person, and you're really teaching this to them for the first time. Not everyone does this: sometimes they might just talk to their dog or stuffed toy or house plant or poltergeist, safe in the knowledge that they won't make themselves look a fool.

But this, friends, this is not the spirit of the game.

So, here we are. I'm going to learn line editing by teaching you. In the spirit of self improvement, I am going to make an idiot of myself on the internet for all to see. And you can tell me what I am getting wrong.

Now, let's begin!