Is Your Post-Edited Content Truly Your Writing?
Thanks to Suzanne for this question! Have you ever wondered what the difference is between your raw first draft, your post-edited content, and how much of your edited copy you can consider truly “your writing?”
This week's livestream is going over, the differences to consider between your raw first draft and your edited work, what to know about the editing process, how much of your raw first draft being included in the final published piece counts as “your writing,” and what to do if you worry that your published work is too far off your original copy or can't be considered “your writing.”
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Is Your Post-Edited Content Truly Your Writing?
So after your work gets edited, how much of that can you consider truly your writing? And this is a really interesting question because a lot of people think that because their work got edited or because something changed or because you know, it's not a hundred percent your raw first draft. That, that makes it not your writing anymore.
And that's such an interesting thing because we all know that editing is part of the writing process, right? This is something that's really important to making our work better and to having someone with an outside, right, Like they're outside of us getting in the weeds and typing everything, looking at our work, seeing where the, the faults are, seeing how it can be better for, um, the reader or the audience.
Hey, Holly. Um, and seeing how, you know, we can improve. So, hey, Vesna . Yeah, this is a good one. So this was Suzanne. Suzanne, um, is a student of mine and, um, she asked me this a while ago and I thought it was so interesting because. I, I guess because I have, like, it's been so long that I've had my work edited.
Like even when I was a kid, like my dad would like edit my work. Um, so it wasn't like a, it's not like a new thing. But I do understand that like there's this thing where writers are like, Oh my gosh, if they touched it, it's not my work anymore. Like, can I put this in my portfolio? Can I use this as a clip?
1) Differences to consider between your raw first draft of your content and your edited work
Um, so we're gonna talk about this today and I think it's really important. So let's talk about the first thing. So number one, also, of course, we have our friends here, but we're trying not to like, you know, do anything about this cuz otherwise, like I've already had upheaval. That's why we were late is I was trying to get everybody in place, uh, and get everybody settled.
So I was in here almost on time and then I had a few minutes of like dealing with. Roughly friends over there. Hopefully they'll go to sleep for a little bit. . So, um, alright, let's talk about our first thing. So this is what we need to consider in terms of differences between our raw first draft and our edited work.
So, um, and then we'll get to this other part that I think is really important. So, when you submit work to your editors or to your clients, whether they're, you know, your content marketing manager at a business or an editor at a public, What you need to think of is this image that I use all the time, and some of my students know this, so I have this little origami paper boat.
It's like the size of a baseball, maybe a softball. It's real small. And I have this image of me taking that origami paper boat, and I'm on the beach. I'm just at this like deserted island beach situation. Um, like, like in Moana, like I'm standing on the beach in Moana and I've got like, Origami paper boat, and it's really small, and I'm like, All right, that origami paper boat represents my work.
And I'm just like, All right, little buddy , you're gonna do the best you can out in the ocean. I don't know what's out in the ocean. I don't know how you're gonna fare. I don't know what's gonna happen. But I really worked hard on creating this little origami paper boat. I know that I did the best I could, and I, I just have to release you out into the ocean and see like what.
So I always had this kind of image when I turned something in of like releasing it to like the vast unknown, which I just like the ocean, but this came to me a long, like years ago. I was just like, huh, You know, like this is kind of how I feel about it is like, uh, there's just this like very delicate like little paper boat and you're just kind of like being like, All right buddy.
Like good luck. Like, you know, you kind of shove it out in the ocean and it floats away into the vast parts of the ocean. Right. Hi, welcome. And to me it was kind of this release of like I did the best I could. So for me, the image was like teaching myself to understand and accept that like I did the best I could.
Even if I get edits, even if I get a ton of edits, right? This image is like me kind of releasing my myself of like the expectations of others or like worrying about what everybody else is gonna say. Cuz I feel confident and good submitting that. Like no matter what it is, and no matter what anybody else says, I felt really good about that piece I submitted, and that's kind of like me releasing it into the vast unknown, right?
So as hard as you work on it and as much as you believe in this work and as as much as you work on edits and you fix your work before you turn it in, it's still a raw first draft, okay? You have to remember. So you have your boat analogy. But the other thing, um, that I teach my students is like every time you turn in a raw first draft, even if it's someone you've written for, for a while, and most especially if it's for a client you haven't written for, it's just like a stab in the dark.
You're like, Is this right? Am I like hitting something like, Ugh. Like, it's kind of like that. You're just like, Is that close? Are we getting there? Like, ugh, ugh. You know? That's kind of what it's like. And I have that still now. So I've been writing, you know, I mean, I've been writing my whole life, but, um, I've been a freelance writer for 10 years, right?
And I still have that feeling. I still turn things into clients and I'm like, Is this right? Are we stabbing in the dark of the right way? Like, that's kind of where you're. So you want to release the expectations, right? You wanna be like, This is the best I could do. Like regardless of what someone else says, you have to have confidence in your work that like, this was the best thing I could do at the time.
Within the constraints I have, within the deadlines, within the knowledge I have right now, within the skills I have right now. That's your origami paper boat. And the other part is just being like, I tried my best. I'm stabbing in the dark because this is part of writing is like you end up just kind of, Hi, woo.
You end up just kind of trying to figure out like, where are we going with this? Like, how is this working? Woo. Go back to your woo hole. Go back to your haba hole. Thank you. You got a woo friend over here. Go back to your woo woo hobbit hole. Um, so when you're kind of thinking about the differences between your raw first draft and your edited, You have to remember these things like you're going off and creating almost in a vacuum, right?
Yes. You might have editorial like information, you might have examples. You might have a content brief. You might have like a whole detailed pack of information, right? But you're still turning in your work based on what you think and what someone else thinks. And I sort of also have this other idea where, think about it as like everybody's eyes see a different color.
Woo. Everybody's eyes see a different color. So if Marie and I, or Tommy and I or um, Vesna or Holly, if we're all looking at a, like let's say we're all looking at like forest green, right? Vesna is gonna see a different shade of forest green than I will, and Tommy will see a different shade of forest green than I will, and Marie and Tommy will see different shades of forest green, right?
So this is like this concept that I think about like even if someone gives you a super detailed. There's still like the way your brain sees it versus the way someone else's brain sees it. Right. And I think the best way to think about that is like everybody sees different shades of the same color. Like we don't all see the same forest green.
Even if you go to Sherwin Williams and you're all looking at the same paint thing, everybody sees a different color. And this is kind of the same thing where like sometimes with our work, we end up questioning things so much, Right? That then we end up with something totally different than the. And then we kind of like have rolled into a different scenario, right?
So think about it as like when you're looking at your rawer draft and your edited work is like, sometimes you're both looking at forest green, but you look, you know, you're looking at it through your brain and your eyes and they're looking at it through their brain and their eyes. You might both be looking at forest green, but you kind of see it differently.
There's nothing wrong with that. That's kind of part of the process. So you wanna kind of have these expectations, right? That, or not expectations, but you wanna have. Confidence in your work. And I wanna just like put a caveat here that it took me years to get to the point of being able to like release expectation.
Like it took me years to build up enough confidence to be like, I'm happy with this work, regardless of what anybody else says. Woo. Go back to your woo hole. Go back to your, No, not right now. . All right. Someone's given lots of high fives over here. So the deal here is just think about all the different ways that someone can look at your.
Have confidence, right? Have confidence in, here you go, buddy, in what you submitted within the timeframe you have. And then realize that like sometimes when you turn in your raw first draft, that's just a stab in the dark and you're gonna mess it up like it you're going to, That's just part of it. It's part of learning it.
But like I said, it took me years to get to the point where I had enough confidence to just be like, Okay, cool. I submitted my work, no matter how terrible they think it is, I was happy with it. And like you have some sense of peace over. So your first thing is kind of like, just understand there probably will be differences in your raw, like between your raw first draft and your edited work and kind of work those through those like images to kind of, you know, deal with the fact that like we're trying really hard, we're doing our best and yeah, we care about our editor's opinion, but you also have to feel good about the work you're submitting and I hope it, The other thing is I hope it doesn't take you years.
Um, to come up with confidence, to feel good in your writing. Like it took me many, like lots of therapy and lots of dealing with rejection and lots of like beating myself up to get to the point of being like, You know what? I'm happy submitting this work. Like, I don't care what you say. In a way, right?
Like I'm, I feel good about this right now. So work on that. That's important too. Let's talk about two now. Let's do a puppy date cuz I got a wily kado. You over here? Go back to your hoit hole. You SAS over here making all these crazy dinosaur noises at me. All right. Many of you forgot your blanket. All right, here you go.
2) How much of your raw first draft being included in the final published piece counts as “your writing”
There you go. Here go buddy. All right, Charlie, you ready? Show everybody your skills. Good job. Do the other one. Good girl. How many can we get? Charlie? How many can we get? Charlie? Oh, good job. Good job Fuzz. Good job. Fuzz. Oh, so now she's running away. Now she's escaping. No, you have to go back to your haa hole.
This is what we do. We just negotiate the whole time. Go back to your Hoba hole. You sas. This is why you can't be on the live q and a, cuz your SAS being go back. Can you hang out here for a bit? I'll even wrap you up so you can be nice and warm. No, go back to your haba hole. You sa Oh my gosh. Why are you so sassy today?
You just need a trot. She needs a good, She needs a good trot. There she is with her funny little ears. Looking like a tiny dino. All right, . Yeah. We have the support duck. The support duck is here for Barry. He going. All right. Can you lay down? Lay down. She's like, I don't wanna do that right now. She's like, If I do that, you're not gonna give me anything,
All right, So let's talk about two. Let's talk about number two here. So our number two thing is what we need to know about the editing process. Actually, I wanna do this other piece first. So number two is gonna be how much of your raw first draft being included counts as your writing. So this is important.
So now that we've kind of. Worked on releasing our expectations and we have kind of like realized that part of the writing process is stabbing in the dark and part of the writing process is getting edits. That's just part of the work. Um, the other piece is that when, um, you're looking at your work, this is what I told Suzanne, I think this is a good rule of thumb if you can get by.
With 70 to 90% of your raw first draft in your final copy, I would consider that a win , like if I get by with 70% of what I, what I had in that article after editing, that's a win to me. So as long as you're, I mean, it's very rare that you get a hundred percent, like every once in a while you do. But if you can score somewhere between 70 to 90% of your raw first.
That's your writing, so that that is a big win. So write that down. If you can see like basically 70% of your own rawer draft in a published piece, that's great. You've knocked it outta the park, 50 to 60%. It depends on who you're writing for, but that's still pretty good. Because here's why. If it's 50 or 60%, then it's like sometimes you have clients that just wanna rewrite things.
Like I've just had clients that tell me I did a great job, and then they rewrite a whole bunch of it, and then I'm like, Do you wanna gimme feedback so I can fix it for next time? And they're like, No, I just wanted to edit it. And I'm like, Okay. So ? Um, it depends. So if it's 50 to 60%, you wanna make sure you ask for feedback and see if you could have done it better.
But I would still consider that part of your writing because you gave them, like, a lot of times what happens is you give them so much raw material that they're like, Oh, you know what? We should do this instead. Or they see it differently. Or, um, you give them basically the framework for them to do all those edits.
So a lot of times we forget that actually putting the, the research and the interviews and all the stuff that we've done together in a blog post is harder than editing, right? Editing is certainly a difficult task, especially when you're talking about like magazine stuff or books or stuff. Um, but editing things like a blog post, like that's a lot easier when someone built the framework for you.
So if you're 50 to 60% of your raw first, I would ask for repeat. I mean, you always ask for feedback, but make sure that like your client isn't like, Yeah, you kind of missed the mark. Like, you know, I would still include that in my portfolio. It's close enough. Um, the other, if you're below 50%, if you're like 30, 40%, I would consider maybe not including that in your portfolio.
It's, it's a really small portion of your original first. And make sure you find out from your client, like, Did you do a good job? Did you make a mistake? Or were they just like very handsy? Like there's some clients that just like, they wanna be handsy with your work. That's, that's just how it works. Like I've had clients where like, they publish a hundred percent of my work and then I have clients where like, like I said, I will ask them like, Hey, can I get some feedback?
Like, it looks like you edited a lot. Like I had, you know, I did a lot of comments. Like, did I, do, you know, how can I make this better for next time? And they're like, No, it was great. We just wanted to like duh da da da, and we wanted to make some changes and we decided to go this direction more. And you're like, Okay.
Um, so in terms of portfolio, as long as it's like at least half of your raw first draft and you've kind of like figured it out, that like, okay, cool. Um, these edits were kind of more on their end than me messing up the assignment. I would include that in your portfolio if they really went hard on the editing.
30, 40. Of your raw first draft draft is in there and like 60, 70% of them futzing around with it. Consider if you wanna put that in there, because here's what happens. Even if you did a great job and they edited it a ton, you don't wanna put that piece in your portfolio and then have someone say, Yes, I love that article.
Write like that. And you're like, I don't write like that. You're like, That's not actually my work. You wanna put stuff in your portfolio where you're like, Yes. Like I feel confident being able, if someone picked this exact. I could repeat that. I could do that again. So look at the work. I like 70 to 90%, and that's pretty reasonable.
Like most of the time your work is gonna be between 70 to 90%. Yeah. People are gonna edit it, they're gonna change things, they're gonna be all this weird stuff that happens. But most of the time, almost all your clients will fall in 70 to 90%. There will be some clients who are very handsy and you'll be 50 to 60%.
Look at those clips, ask for feedback, make sure. Um, you kind of like iron it out in terms of doing a better job or whether they just wanna be handsy. Um, and then go back to your hubba hole , and then if you're below that, like 40 to 30%, really consider if you wanna put that in your portfolio, because it's not like, it's not that it's not your writing, it's just that like if someone picked that piece and asked you to do it again, the, the odds of you being able to do that again after someone messed with it so.
Are kind of not in your favor, . So you wanna make sure that go back to your hobba hole, Back to your hubba hole. Nope. You gotta go back to, no, you gotta go back to your hobba hole. Nope, I'm not doing high fives over here. You can only do it in your hot hole. You wanna make sure that anything that's in your portfolio, go back to your hobbit hole man.
You're sa today. Um, you wanna make sure that you no, go back to your how hole. See you later. Have a nice day. You like licking me and giving me high fives. I'm not doing high fives. You wanna make sure that anything that's in your portfolio, Oh, Charlotte agrees. One out of one. Charlotte's agree that anything you put in your portfolio is representative of the type of work you could create.
Again, that you could repeat that you want to represent the type of work you're doing. Um, this is the other thing to think about. So there are stories of people who have gotten work in big publications, right? Like people who have written for like the top publications in the country. And then they send those samples out and then someone's like, Yeah, I want you to write like that, or whatever.
And they learn and they figure out that like the editors at that big publication really made that piece what it is, right? So that person is now, that writer is now kind of like shopping these clips that like aren't really their clips, right? Like they realize after working with the writer that the writer can't repeat it, or that the writer didn't really actually do a good job, like their raw first draft.
Way like leagues away from the article that got published in this big publication. So that's something else that you wanna be cautious of, is that, Can you repeat it? Like if someone says, Do I do this right? You don't wanna be one of those writers where like someone made it something different and then you can't figure that out.
Here go man. You have to go back to your ha hole. Go back to your haa hole, Big coral. Good job. And that's like, for me, that's like a nightmare scenario. Like if you had a piece that got published and you could, you couldn't like redo it even from basically the example of it being published, Right? That's a big problem.
And you don't wanna be one of those writers where you're like, I've written for like giant publication. And then someone's like, Great, like, let's do that again. And then you're like, Okay. And then it, it's becomes very obvious when you turn in your raw first draft that it's not even close to the. Style or tone or quality is the other one.
So, um, Marie says, I had a client who decided to highlight different words with caps and colors and emojis and got paid to move forward. Yeah, it, everybody kind of does weird stuff. Like every client kind of does different things and, but what you wanna figure out is like if you get work back and it's 70 to 90%, I would consider that a home run, you're close enough because you ha you have no idea.
How much that client is really gonna edit your work. And you could have knocked it out of the park and they still cut 30%. They still messed around with it, you know, So that's close enough, 50 to 60%. Like I said, always ask for feedback, even if you're a hundred percent of your work gets published, always ask for feedback.
Ask if you can change anything, if there's anything to edit, um, or any kind stuff that you can do to improve. But if you're 50 to 60%. Of your raw first draft that gets published. Go over there. Woo. No. Woo. I'm not doing high fives over here. , go. Woo woo. Go over there. No, you have to go all the way back. If you're at 50 to 60%, make sure that you kind of look through that.
Is that, did they make like major edits? Was it a lot of stuff where like your, the quality of your work was not good? Get feedback, consider whether or not you wanna put that in your portfolio. Um, and then like 30 to 40%, be really careful with that. Um, be really careful with like, do you actually, you know, do you actually want to do that type of piece again?
Do you want someone to at random pick that piece and say, do this? And you're like, I can't be really careful with that. I think this is really important, especially when writers kind of learn how the editing process really. They kind of think like, Oh no, like every percentage down is a chip off of like my writing ability.
It's not, Editing is supposed to happen, like when I work with business clients or when I work with publications, with publications, I expect them to like go nuts. I expect them to pretty much, you know, be in the, the somewhere between like 60 to 70%. Sometimes I get a hundred percent rarely, but, or it might be 90%, but a lot of times you're like right around 60, 70% with public.
But business clients, you're probably like 80 to 90%. It just depends. But you have to kind of realize that this is part of the process. You are looking at it, right? You're looking through your forest green lens and someone else gets your piece right, and they look through their forest green lens, and those things are sometimes not the same.
So editing is normal. Your work being edited by a publication, whatever is normal. The difference is how much of that can you put in your portfolio? Like really be careful with something that's 30 to 40% raw, like your raw first draft. Like if you have 60 to 70% of the content pretty much like delivered by your client, that's kind of a problem.
Um, but know that editing is normal. Okay? I wanna normalize this. This is totally normal and like, I feel like a lot of writers are like 70%, Like, how can I use that? Like, it's close enough. Like I think after I've had like hundreds if not thousands of articles and stories. I mean, I only have like a few hundred on my portfolio, but I have more than that that aren't on there.
But like I've had all these stories edited and I've worked with enough different types of clients. All different types of corporate clients, all different types of magazines to know that like this is normal and like you can repeat most of the time. 70%. Right? So if there's some changes that were made, right?
You can repeat that if someone picks it out of your clips. But like 50, 60, 40%, somewhere in there, that can be a little harder. Yes. Woo. Would you like to lodge a complaint with the W department? You would have to make sure that you called the right W department to give everyone your w. Go buddy. Good job.
Can you give me some high fives, . Good job. Otherwise other one. Good job. I like your bud guys. Your bud guys are pretty cute, although it's always really hard to get you, get you both on camera. Like no matter how many times I change the camera or I like put it up or down or whatever, one of you just wants to be halfway outside the camera and one of you is just like, No, I don't feel like doing that today.
Or Yes, I wanna be in the camera. Oh my gosh, we so cute. What? So cute. Oh, I like your tail bags, Berry Barry. That turkey's about to be taken outta the oven. I like your little Turkey legs. All right, let's go to three. Let's talk about three. Uh, if you feel like this has been helpful so far, give it a thumbs up if you feel like you wanna learn more about building a freelance writing business.
3) What to know about the content and article editing processes
You adore, or building a hiring, freelance writing business. Or maybe they're the, both the, They're both, both for you. Maybe that's what you want. . So describe, All right. They are being diva dogs today. It's just because they're, it's like our weather has, we're still in this phase of like, Trying to figure out when to walk them because it's still a thousand degrees here.
Luckily it's supposed to drop to like the seventies and then we'll be good. But the weather has been really rough with walking them because it's not just like the outdoor temperature. It's like the pavement and it's the thing. Let's talk about three. So let's talk about three. What do we need to know about the editing process?
I did a little switch air, so number three here. When we're doing our editing process, it's normal to get a lot of comments. , it's normal for people to ask questions. It's normal for people to mark a bunch of things, change a lot of things futs around with your work, right? That's part of editing. This is part of the creative process and I think a lot of writers just feel so, um, self-conscious and they feel so worried.
Hi mou. They feel so worried that like any time someone's editing their work, it's like a strike against. This is not the thing. This is more, um, self-confidence and this is more writers being like insecure about their work. It has nothing to do with your client, it's just about as a group, right. Writers are often worried and I'm definitely, like, there's things that I'm still insecure about and there's things that I still worry about, right?
So it's just kind of part of the process where we need to normalize people leaving comments in Google Docs or we need to normalize like editor. Changing their mind or doing different stuff or whatever. But like I said, as long as you're within those safety cat, like safety percentages of like 70 to 90%, I would consider that a home run.
We're pretty much doing great. Um, if you like, like I said, even though I'm saying home run, always ask for feedback. Always ask for information. Like, Hey, I noticed, you know, you did these edits. Is there any way that I could have made the piece better? Do you have any feedback that I can take using, or that I.
Take for, um, pieces in the future, that kind of stuff. But the editing process is like, everybody does it differently, right? So just like every writer writes differently, So like, I write differently, write than Holly and I write differently than Vesna, and I write differently than Marie. Like, and I write differently than like Charlotte would if Charlotte could write
Um, but everybody writes differently just like everybody edits Differe. So normalize the idea that like people, when you send something off, right? You have your little origami paper boat and you send it off into the ocean and you're stabbing in the dark, being like, is this close? Like that's all like part of the process that then someone else is kind of doing something similar, right?
The other thing to think about here in the editing process is how many people are gonna look at your work and you wanna be careful about this. So like if you have an editor at a magazine, it's. One person, it's usually that editor and maybe they have a copy editor and maybe they might have an associate editor.
So at most it might be two people, because almost all publications, like we all know they've had, had budget cuts. Right. So like your editor has now become copy editor and assistant editor and fact checker and, and and, Right. So they used to have like a thousand different positions and now they don't.
Just be, Just know how many people are gonna look at, look at your work. The other thing is that at companies, it could be 5, 6, 10 people. So you need to make sure you know that ahead of time. So when I get on a client call, I ask that how many people are like, who's involved in the editing process? Like, how many people are gonna be, Am I working directly with you, or are we, am I working with a ton of people?
Is this gonna go to committee after I write it, Like, is there gonna be six other people looking at. That kind of sets your own expectations for what the editing process is gonna be like, because the rule still applies, like the corporate rule still applies, that if you ask people like to taste the soup, they're gonna taste the soup and give you feedback, right?
If you ask someone to put their hands in the honey pot and like, you know, get involved, they're gonna give feedback, right? Because they're living like a lot of times in a business, right? You ask for feedback and if you just say like, no feedback, everyone's like, You're not even working. What are you doing?
and like if you ask for feedback from five or six people, you're gonna get it and you're gonna get five or six people's feedback. So what happens here? Let's say you did have like six, let's say five people. You had five people giving you feedback, and you get this document that's covered in contradictory comments.
This has happened to me. It's a pain. What you need to do here is say like, go to your contact and be like, Hi, can you solve this on your end? You know, these are all these people that you know, that you work with every day. There's a lot of contradictory comments here. Can you figure out which ones are important and then I'll do all of those edits Cuz like, I don't wanna, I'm not gonna pick and choose between people.
I don't know. So you need to go to one contact, like your regular contact and say like, we need to kind of figure out these edits. Like, is this just people sticking their finger in the honey pot, right? Like they're just trying to like, Ugh, someone thinks I'm not doing anything. Let's add a thousand comments.
Um, Or is this woo? You can't stick your finger in any hand honey pot right now. Or is this just kind of like really constructive feedback and everybody has a different idea of what the piece should be? That's a different scenario. Right? So like let's say you get a bunch of comments in their contradictory only because people put their hand in the honey pot.
That's fine. The other thing is like people have different ideas of what the article or the case study or the guide should be. Go back to your hub hole. Nope. You gotta go back to your hub hole and then you need your contact to like iron that out. Good. Good job. I like those high fives, so. Before you ever even start working on anything, ask that in your client call, if you get the feeling that you're gonna be working with a ton of people, if you ask them about their, what's your revision process like?
How will editing be like, Sometimes what ends up happening is your client will like force that conversation anyways. You're on a call with a potential client and they're like, So how many rounds of revisions do you do? And you're like, Mm. Are there like 12 people that's gonna look at this? So that's where you wanna kind of like start asking if they say like, Oh yeah, we need multiple rounds of revisions cuz we're gonna have a ton of people doing this.
That's already setting the expectation that like, this could be difficult to do because getting a a ton of people to agree is very hard sometimes. Um, so you either will continue working with that client, right? And you're like, Okay, we're just gonna solve this. Or you decide like, I'm not doing 12,000 revisions and I'm not trying to pass this through.
You know, my editor or my, um, my content marketing manager, the director of marketing, and then the board, like, that's just too many. It's too much complication. Um, . Yeah, I like the honey pot. So this is something to think about. This is something that's really important. I like the minimal amount of people, the better.
Like if it's just the content marketing manager who's doing it, or just the marketing director, just. Person or one editor. That's so much easier cuz we're now, we can get on the same page a lot faster if it's like 10 other people. It takes forever. It takes forever to do it. So ask that on your client call.
Yes, I know you want something. You look like a tiny penguin. Go over there. Tiny penguin. I'm not giving you high fives over here. You have to go give high fives over there. Okay? I guess you can give a high five to my foot if you want . Um, but ask this on your client call. Go back to your hub. Well, we're not getting anything.
If you don't go back to your huba hole, I know you have beautiful Betty Davis size. You have big brown Betty Davis size, um, . So as you kind of go through the process, always ask this in the beginning. You have to go back to your huba hole. You can make B. Noise is all you want. Um, you have to figure this out from the beginning, and you have to set expectations with yourself.
Hi, thanks for scratching my leg. Um, you have to set expectations for your editing process, like how many people are gonna be involved. And then that way, like let's say you get a piece back and go, go to your habit hole, no , you should like back up, go to your habit hole and I'll give you something. You have to set expectations with yourself, right?
So you have to set expectations with your. , um, for how this is gonna go, right? So like let's say you end up getting a clip that's like 50% of your copy, right? And you had five or six other people edit it, that's close enough. Like we can consider that a win. He go other. Good job being a cool girl. So those are the things to think about.
The other thing is like, don't be intimidated if someone leaves a lot of comments or questions or whatever. It doesn't necessarily mean you did something wrong. It might just be that they looked at it really quickly and um, you know, you go back and you're like, Huh? Like, can you elaborate? And the person goes back and reads it and they're like, Nevermind.
No problem. . So, um, yeah. I think a lot of things with the editing process can be fixed by just knowing how many people you're talking with, how many people are gonna read it, how many people are gonna stick their hand in the honey pot and add edit. And what you can kind of expect. The other thing to do is ask them, like on the call, like how many revision, if they've worked with freelance writers before, how many revisions are typical, like, how many have you done with other writers?
And they might say something like five or 10 rounds and you're like, No, I don't wanna do that. You gotta know that upfront because when you get, when you sign a contract and now you're doing a piece and you gotta go through the rigamarole, like you can finish it, you can, you know, end the contract early and not finish the piece, but, It's probably not a good idea.
You wanna at least finish the piece and then be like, This isn't working. I gotta get outta here. So ask those things beforehand. Good job. Mini. You're staying in your HOA hole. You're doing great. Ready? We'll do a quick date so you guys can see her. High fives. Good job. Good job. Good job. There you go. Mary.
You're doing. You're looking great. Your eyes leaking a little bit. That's okay. That's part of being almost 16. You gave any high cuts? very, Hold on. Good job, Charlotte. You look like you're melting the way you're sitting. You look like you're melting. All right, we're gonna do one more thing. So if you found this helpful, uh, give it a thumbs up.
If you feel like you wanna learn more about building a, hiring, freelance writing business, or building a freelance writing business, you adore s. Okay. Last point. We're gonna talk about number four here, and I hope this has been helpful because for me, I always thought like if anybody made any corrections to my work, like I really struggled with perfectionism, so I was like, Oh my God, I did it wrong.
4) What to do if you worry that your published work is too far off your original copy or can't be considered “your writing”
Like I'm never, no one's gonna hire me again. Let go of the perfectionism. Remember that this is, your writing is this kind of like a MEbA, like it stretches and, and flows and it's kind of, Creative little monster. It's not like I did it right, and I put everything in order. It's not robotic, right? It's like a creative thing.
And remember the color thing, like your forest green is different than someone else's. Let's talk about four. So our last thing here, number four, is, um, what if you're worrying about this, right? So like, let's say you are worried that it's not your writing, right? You're, you're at like 30, 40% and you're like, What am I gonna do?
So here's the. You have to decide whether or not you wanna include that in your portfolio, right? If you're worrying about this, most of the time I find that writers worry about like getting two comments, and now you're just like, It's fine. You did great. If you're really worrying that it's not your writing and you're at 30 to 40%, don't include it in your portfolio.
Just don't just chalk it up as a loss. Be like, Oh, well I have this clip, I got, I made some money, you know, maybe I'll try be, you know, I'll try a different situation next. But don't put it in your portfolio if you're really worried about someone picking it and you having to recreate that, and it would be really hard for you to do that.
The other thing too is, Your writing. This is an interesting concept to me where a lot of writers think it's like their writing. Like they're like, This is my raw first draft and it's my writing. It's only your first draft. I don't care how many times you edited it. I don't care how many times you looked at it, if another human who is your client has not looked at it, it's your raw first draft.
Okay, So your raw first draft is your first. Whatever happens after that is another version, right? So your raw first strap goes to your client, and this is the piece that writers kind of miss, like they mess this up is they're like, Oh, it's not my writing because someone touched it. No, dude, it's still yours.
Like there's always going to be an editing process. There's always going to be like your writing and it getting edited. Like your editor's job is also to make it so that it shines so that they bring out the best things that you said. Maybe you didn't do it as well as you thought, and they were like fixed four or five sentences, and you're like, Wow, it sounds great.
Now. Like, Thank you, editor. Right. There's this thing where it's like a lot of times I talk to writers who just wrote in a vacuum, right? I'll talk to writers who are like, Oh, I just have a blog. I have a super successful blog. Or I've been blogging for this one client for forever and they never edit my work, right?
So when they get edited, they're like, That's not my writing anymore. Like, it's not representative of me, and it's just not true , it's just not true. Like, this is the thing that I, I always kind of keep in the back of my mind, and this is a really good story. So write this down. Um, when, and my dad told me this for years, like I've, I've always kept this in the back of my mind when Tom Clancy wrote Hunt for Red October, and I've probably talked about this before.
When Tom Clancy wrote Hunt for Red October, he brought it into the publisher and they were like, That's nice. Re rewrite the whole thing. So he was like, I finished, I'm done. And they're like, Eh, you need, they're like, This is okay, but like you need to just rewrite the whole thing. Right? So if he had been like, Well that's not my writing and that's not my blah blah, like, there would be no hunt for red October.
Right? Which, I, if I remember, it's still like a really top selling book. Right? So he, this dude, right? He spent all this time, months, maybe years, I think it was months, but he spent all this time writing Hunt for Red October, right? And all of this research and all this effort. And they were like, That's nice, try again.
Right? And that's the difference between being like your writing, the editing process, redoing something, right? And writing a. Writing a book is a lot different than an article, right? It's like a billion articles. So if you have to rewrite a whole book and it's still like a best seller, it's still something that people read.
It's probably worth it, right? And then you stop having the conversation of like my writing, right? So the idea here is that. Your writing is only like in a vacuum. Okay? So if you're a writer who's been doing your own stuff without any outside, you haven't had any editors, you haven't had any corporate clients, you haven't had anybody touch your work, that's when I often see people being like, Is it my writing?
The writing part is involving other people. Nobody publishes a book or an article or anything without other people being involved. That doesn't make it not their writing, right? Just because it's not your raw first draft. I think that this is a piece to really think about that like really think about what your writing is, and this isn't something high grumpy.
Oh my gosh, now everybody's attack. Um, . This isn't really about keeping your creative voice or like weird stuff like that. Like yeah. There are certain things where I'll push back because I talked to a source or I talked to someone, or I read the research and my editor is like, Oh, it should be this. And I'm like, No, the research says it's this, so we have to keep it like this.
And they're like, Oh, bummer. You know? But. The, the oftentimes where you're writing about something like making change is really important to getting a voice out there, right? There's also writers I talk to that are like, No, it has to be my original writing because otherwise, like I'm sacrificing my creativity and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Like, no, If you write in a vacuum, you're never gonna become a better writer if you don't work with editors at magazines or if you don't work with corporate clients or you don't have somebody. Looking at your work, it's really hard to become a better writer and you need that, right? And the other part of the agreement that you make when you become a writer is like, do you want to reach this audience?
Right. There's some people that, um, some coaching clients that I've had or some students that I've had where. Um, they want, they're like, I really wanna, I, I, this is like my passion topic. I'm really, it's really important to me to write about this. And then they're upset like that. Someone edited their work, they're like, No, I'm really passionate.
Like, I really think it should be this. Right, But you have to kind of understand that to reach the audience you want, you still have to deal with edits. We're not talking about factually incorrect edits. We're not talking about someone changing things to make it wrong, right? We're talking about like edits that someone makes to your piece and, and people, um, you know, people like hold too strongly to their raw first draft.
You have to be open to feedback. You have to be open to other people helping, making. Other people helping to make your writing better, right? This is really important. You have to like remember that all of the things you love, right? There's lots of writers that are like, Oh my gosh, this is my favorite book.
I read it every year. Or, I love this. Um, you know, I love this writer from Text Texas Monthly. That's actually me. I have a writer that I really love it Textless monthly. I read her stuff all the time. . Um, but. They all got edited. The reason you love their stuff is cuz they took feedback and they made it better.
They weren't worried about like my writing or like, this isn't true to me. Like they're getting better. And the true to you and your writing evolves over time. If you're open to feedback and you pay attention to what your clients want. And you read a lot and you learn from other people who are better writers than you.
Your, your writing changes so much. If you go back and read my garbage stuff from 10 years ago, you'll see my writing is way better now, right? Because I took feedback and I worked really hard to like make it better. But that's really important. So instead of stressing about like, is it my writing, right?
You really need to stress about I need to get better. Like obviously they've pointed out these few things and I need to work. And you need to pay attention to, Is this something I want more of? Like let's say you were 50 to 60%, right? You had 50 to 60% of your raw first draft. Do I wanna include that in my portfolio as something I wanna write?
Maybe not. Maybe you had something that was a hundred percent your rawer draft and you're like, Ugh, I don't wanna write about that again. I don't wanna do that. It just kind of depends. So when you're thinking about this stuff, don't hold so tightly to your writing that you become blind to. The important feedback and thefor important stuff you need to learn as a writer.
Like every writer you've ever read has been edited, right? Like books that you've read, um, magazines, publications, corporate stuff like people who give speeches, whatever kind of writing or, uh, like content that you like. It's all been edited. Podcasts, right? This is like not edited cuz of my live stream, but like I'm giving you like a succinct version of me.
Not giving you the fire hose, right? So just think about that. Like it's not that it wholly has to be your writing, it can still be your writing if you're getting help, right? Or if someone's helping you make it better or make it a better fit for their audience. Or maybe there's some unique things you needed to know, right?
So. Stress about getting better stress, about hitting 70 to 90% of your rawer draft in your published stuff, rather than being like, Oh my gosh, they touched my work. It's not my work anymore. Don't stress about that cuz it's important like, Obviously speak up if someone made an edit and you're like, Uh, this makes my piece a lot worse, which has happened to me too, right?
I end up with edits where someone's like, We should do this or this, and I'm like, That doesn't make any sense. Like, and you know, when you make the edit and say like, See, this doesn't fit in. They're like, Oh yeah, it doesn't like, make sure you do speak up about things that don't make sense or things that hurt the quality of the piece that you feel like it's obvious that two people were in there, or three or whatever, but.
You know, let go of like the, the grip, like the stone cold grip on, like, it has to be mine shoot for 70 to 90. All right. Um, Marie says, also, I find asking in the discovery call, do you give a brief, uh, makes a difference because some do and some don't. Some give a brief that's plug and play and some ask me to come up with ideas.
Yeah. So it also depends on like how much information you're getting, right? Like sometimes they give you a full content brief, so it's a lot easier to align on ideas. And sometimes they're like, pitch us some ideas and like, go for it. And you're like, Okay. Um, so it depends, right? Let's do a pub date real.
Let's do a pub date, but no one's in the pub date zone because everyone's over here bugging me. Go back to your huba hole, Barry. Go back to your Huba hole. Good job. Good job. There you go. There you go. All right, Charlie. Be classic. You guys are just like, you just love to like not be in the camera. You just love it.
You just love to be in other weird places. All right. Nope. I'm gonna give this to me. Other one. Good job. Other one other. You gotta put this one down though. Other one? Good job. Oh my gosh. That's a lot of droo. Oh, gross. Good job. You look so fuzzy today. . You look fuzzy and suspicious. How about you bear? You look fuzzy and suspicious.
Charlotte. Charlotte, you were so shiny and now you're not shiny because you dust rolled like a little chinchilla. Charlotte's kind of like a chinchilla. She likes to go outside. Roll in the dust and no matter how many times I wash her, she just keeps going out there and she gets all dusty and dirty and she's a rough and tug of pork.
She's a rough and tug of pork. All right, we'll do one more. Ready. Good job, buddy. Right, Charlie, Right. Good job. Good job. All right, so, all right. Last thoughts here. Last thoughts are, don't hold so tightly to your. Remember that you're, all of your content, everything you've ever read has been edited. And thank God you're not Tom Clancy having to go back and rewrite a hundred thousand words of a book
So think about your writing as an important piece, like you are giving a foundation. Your raw first draft is a good foundation. And that's why it started out with saying like, Remember the origami paper boat. Feel confident that you did the best that you could and the circumstances you were in with the knowledge and skills you have and the timeframe you were allotted.
Right? We usually only have two to three weeks to turn something around. Sometimes if you have a big feature, it could be a couple months, um, but most of the time you don't have a lifetime to do something. You can only do the best you can in those circumstances. Let your raw first draft go. Do the edits, always get feedback, ask questions, learn how to write better, right?
That's way more important than worrying about something being your writing. Right? So hit 70 to 90%, 50 to 60%. You can publish it if you want, like in your portfolio, 30 to 40%. Be really careful with that. Um, but yeah, like when you're kind of thinking through this, Everything is edited. Everything you read is edited almost.
Um, and it's part of the process of learning how to become a better writer. So don't lose the chance to become a better writer just because you're like my writing, you know, like, let it go. Um, I think that's something that has been really helpful for me is just learning to like, let it go and be like, you know what?
I wanna make it the best thing it is. And if the goal is to make that article or that case study, or white paper or guide or whatever it. the best it can be. Then you need a collaborative process, which means editing. Yeah. It's usually you have two to three weeks to turn something around. Like I, I like two to three weeks.
I mean, I have some things that I turn around in a week, but it's because I've already worked with that client enough to be like, to be able to do it quickly. But I like two to three. Feature articles or stuff that you do for magazines, you'll have two to three weeks. Sometimes you'll have a couple months if it's a really, if it's like a 2000 or 3000 word feature.
But even those are like kind of rare nowadays. Um, but yeah, Tom Clancy didn't write rewrite his book. Are you sure about that? That's like a well known story that like for Hunt for Red October, they were like, go back and rewrite this whole. . We should talk about that then because that's like a very old story that like what?
It was hunt for red October. It wasn't like they asked him to go back and fix it. So Marie, we should talk about that cuz that's like an example I read about, or like my dad told me and I read about it a while back. So, all right, we'll have to talk about that. But if you felt like this was helpful, give it a thumbs up.
If you wanna learn more about editing or writing or building a hiring freelance writing business, or building a writing business, you adore s. We're here every Friday at 12:00 PM Central time. Oftentimes, these guys aren't so wi classic. You guys just like love to not be in there. These guys come hang out with us.
We do some pop dates, they do some funny things. They make lots of weird noises. So, um, we're here every Friday at Noon Central. We do topics. If you ever have a question like this one was from Suzanne, but if you ever have a question or a topic that, um, you want me to talk about on livestream, feel free to go to mans.com/question and submit it.
Um, And you asked what the turnaround time was. What does that have to do with rewriting the book? ? Hold on Marie, we're gonna have talk about this later. Um, alright, so I will see you guys next Friday. I hope this was helpful. They're gonna be here next Friday. Hopefully they won't be so wild. I see you moving your ears around.
I like your years. You look super cute. All right, one more. We're gonna do one more.
Hold on. Go look. Oh, here you go. Ready?
Good job, guys. All right, Marie. We're gonna have to talk about that more then, cuz then I need to edit that story. . All right, So hopefully this was helpful. I will see you guys later. Hope you have a good weekend. And, uh, the p say hello, . All right, I'll see you guys next Friday.
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