Writing Articles (Part 15 of 21)

Revise and polish your article.

Call it editing, revising, or polishing, it means you work on the article until it's the best you can do.

As I wrote earlier, I wrote 18 full drafts of my first article. After that, I revised each a few times. Perhaps 15 on the second article (I no longer remember). By then, I had gained knowledge on how to write. I continued working to improve.

I still write occasional articles and I go through the same steps, but I write fewer drafts. I rarely go beyond the third draft. Even on the third, it really is polishing and not editing.

Here are a few hints on polishing your work.

* Look for awkward or laborious sentences.

* Seek ways to cut unneeded words. Get rid of adjectives and adverbs that don't enhance the writing.

* Sharpen your focus (if needed).

* Look at the number of times you use the same word in your article. If you use a word 12 times, that's too many. Look at a thesaurus for synonyms (but don't use one unless you know what it means). 

My article is never good enough 

until it's good enough for me to say I can't improve it.

Writing Articles (Part 11 of 21)

Don't distract readers.

Let's look again at reading two magazines. As you focus on each article, here’s another question to ask: Is there anything that distracts me from a single focus? Less experienced writers tend to provide too much information and thus divert the power of the message.

Once you have a single-focused idea, you can state it in one sentence. Here are examples:

* If you’re considering adoption, here are seven things you need to know.

* People see the patient, but the caregiver becomes invisible.

* I didn't want to forgive Betty, but Betty forgave me.

If I can't reduce an article, scene, or chapter 

into one statement, 

I probably haven't focused.