Thread by @dickiebush

3 dead-simple steps to edit your writing in 10 minutes or less (that you'll actually use):

Chances are, your editing process is 1 of these 2:

1. Spending zero time editing at all

2. Spending way too much time agonizing over every word

Neither of these are good.

The key?

Finding a quick process you'll actually stick to.

And here are 3 steps to get you there:

1. Wait 24 hours between writing and editing

The legendary David Ogilvy taught me this trick.

Your writing will *always* look good shortly after writing it – because you just wrote it!

So you need to give it time to breathe.

That way, you have fresh eyes for the next 2 steps:

Coming back the next day, we have 2 goals:

1. Edit the copy for clarity & flow

2. Edit the formatting for readability & skimmability

But instead of skipping these 2 steps entirely (or spending dozens of hours on them), we're going to do it in 10 minutes or less.

Here's how:

2. Read everything your write aloud

Another legend – Gary Halbert – taught me this one.

It's hard to *see* the clunky bits in your writing – sometimes you have to *hear* them.

And this is the secret to great writing – it doesn't *sound* like writing.

Here's what I mean:

When you read something aloud, 99% of the time you will find it hard to speak.

And writing that is hard to speak is hard to read.

Which is why the single best piece of writing advice I've ever heard is to write like you talk.

So when reading aloud, look for 2 things:

1. Find where you are out of breath

This means you have run-on sentences – combine them.

2. Find where you stumble over words

This means you're using jargon or trying to sound smart – simplify it.

Spend 5 minutes to fix these & your writing quality will 10x

Let's keep going:

Alrighty - so far you've:

• Written
• Waited 24 hours
• Read your writing aloud
• Cut the run-on sentences, clunky bits, and jargony words

With your copy edits done, we need to edit our formatting for skimmability & readability.

Which takes us to the last step:

3. Read your writing on a different screen than the one you wrote on

This is *the* ultimate editing hack – and something almost everyone overlooks.

For most people, they both write & edit on desktop - never even considering mobile.

But editing from your phone does 2 things:

First, reading on mobile gives you fresh eyes.

Just like waiting 24 hours between writing & editing, this new perspective makes it *painfully obvious* which parts to cut/rewrite.

Second, reading from mobile puts formatting/skimmability top of mind.

This is important because...

On the internet (and on phones especially) people don't "read."

They SKIM! Then, they read.

And if you don't give them a reason to keep reading while they skim, they won't even consider reading.

Back to TikTok and Netflix they go.

So here are 4 little formatting hacks:

1. Avoid big "walls of text" to make it less intimidating

2. Use big bold subheads to make it skimmable

3. Use bulleted/numbered lists to optimize for SPEED

4. Open with 1 single sentence to make it easy for your reader to get started

Boom – now your piece is super readable.

Alrighty – all of that should take 10 minutes.

From there – you're ready to publish – even if it doesn't *feel* ready.

But, if you still find yourself struggling to hit publish, Ship 30 for 30 will turn that perfectionism into a thing of the past:

ship30for30.com

3 dead-simple steps to edit your writing in 10 minutes or less (that you'll actually use):

1. Wait 24 hours between writing and editing

2. Read everything you write aloud to identify the clunky bits

3. Do your final edits on a different screen than the one you first wrote on

Boom! Hope this framework was helpful in helping you up your writing game.

If it was, here are 2 things you can do:

1. Follow me @dickiebush for more digital writing threads

2. Jump back to the top of the thread & retweet it to share with others

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https://twitter.com/dickiebush/status/1512787391576166408