Edward de Bono’s concept of Six Thinking Hats can really help you make better decisions. The idea is that you, in your mind, put on different hats for different ways to think about a problem. Imagining that you’re putting on your “editor hat” works the same way. It’s a way of pretending that  »  Read More

“I can’t take that out!” He almost screamed it. We were working to improve his blog posts and reviewing a draft. I suggested that he take out a particular phrase. He objected. He said it was a great phrase. It was. He said that it was a fine bit of writing. It was. But the post was better without  »  Read More

We’re on the homestretch now. I’m doing the final read-through and edit of a client’s book. This will be the sixth major revision. Here’s what got us to this point, and what comes next. The first step was to get the basics right. That took a while, but we got the big pieces in the right order. Then  »  Read More

Maxwell Perkins may not have been the best literary editor ever, but he would certainly be in the running for that title. At Scribner’s he was the editor for F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Thomas Wolfe, as well as Marjorie Rawlings and Alan Paton. Here’s one piece of his sage advice. “Just get  »  Read More