by Joe Wallace

There’s no mistaking the Apple iPhone, the iTouch, or the new Apple iPad. The style is quite distinctive, and many people are attracted to these gadgets because of their form factors.

The same is true with writing. If you’re working with a writer who has a following (or is developing one), chances are they’ve got a style that appeals to a certain segment of the publication. The style and tone is what grabs them as much as the information itself.

So how do you edit a writer and steer them into better work without cutting out the style and tone that makes them interesting to read?

In my own case, it’s pretty safe to say that I’m snarky, sarcastic, and generally coming from the Hunter S. Thompson school of freewheeling observational writing. I can reign it in when a degree of tact is required, but I generally like to let it all hang out, as the old song goes.

But I had an editor or two that helped me along the way to spot some potential land mines and now I pass their techniques on to you.

The first, most brilliant thing an editor ever did was to help me recognize cliches in my own work. I am sure Ann Yingling doesn’t remember me all the way back from 1987, but I remember her very first critique of my work. “Watch the PREACHING, Joe!” A common noob writer mistake to be sure, but one she addressed directly and with no hint of uncertainty. She liked my work (and said so) but told me up front that I was steering into cliche-land.

Another editor used the question-answer approach with me. He would never directly critique what I had written, but instead told me to ask myself questions like, “How do you think your own bias could cloud the reportage of a story like this?” or, “What do you think would happen if the person most likely to win this election suddenly dropped out?”

Forcing me to look at a different angle of my work gave me some much-needed perspective.

When you’re editing someone, or advising them how to self-edit, be sure to make them look at their work in a way they never thought to before–it may not change the approach to the story or the post in the end, but it does force people not to take things for granted. Sometimes a little thinking time is the best thing you can give a new piece of writing.